Book Review: Chester's Back!, Series Title #2 by Mélanie Watt

But Chester dislikes finding creativity channeled or constricted by publisher and reader expectations of tried and true characters, dialogues, and events. He escapes from fairytale expectations of long ago stories in faraway places through the persona of the ancient feline inventor of:

• cave art; and
• wheels.

He nevertheless finds impatient inventiveness on the part of his butler, Country Mouse, who introduces a dinosaur with bad breath from not alternating breath mint-chewing with cave cat-devouring.

Chester gets back as the Great Chesterdini. He hacks fairytale artworks in half. He is bested by:

• exiting as the disappearing end of vanishing acts;
• finding the artwork taped back together; and
• getting replaced by a Chester-costumed pig, #1 of 36+ Chester-replacement auditioners. 

Chester juxtaposes a dust storm, a quartet of Old Southwest ghost-town buildings, and a super-prickly cactus to visibly mended fairytale artwork. The piglet knows when to abandon creativity clashes which lead to:

• giant urban-sprawl billboards;
• long white limousines;
• names in lights;
• red carpet events; and
• red jellybeans.

Chester lets it be known that he answers to the title Sir Chester and that Country Mouse must keep busy but not so industrious as to respond other than immediately to the butler’s bell.

Fulfillment of all of his demands makes Chester so over-confident as to miss the mark on ridiculous outfits to wear to fancy theaters. Eyewitnesses notify newspapers worldwide of Chester’s silly star-collared jumpsuit sporting a tail bell. 

Readers operate under clouds of delusion if they contemplate the end to Chester’s star author career. Cats justifiably pride themselves on forgiving humans when people err. Chester gently questions who will win the 500 gazillion red jellybean reward as his picture book co-creator.

Chester's Back! therefore regales children and grown-ups of all ages -- beyond the target audience of pre-schoolers to third-graders aged 4 to 8 years -- with culturally enriching, educationally entertaining adventures amid such domesticated animals as cats, dogs, and mice, thanks to:

• Sophie Gagnon’s author photo;
• Kids Can Press Ltd.’s publishing arrangements;
• Tara Walker’s editorship; and
• Mélanie Watt’s design, illustrations assembled digitally from pencil and watercolor, and storyline set in Carnation and Kidprint text.  

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Chester the cat takes credit for inventing the wheel.
Interestingly, the New World can claim an independently invented wheel via wheel-like worked stones on kids' toys devised by the Olmecs (1500 BCE to about 400 BCE).
mill wheel in Cedar Point, Chase County, east central Kansas: Patrick Emerson (Kansas Poetry [Patrick]), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kansasphoto/5663997653/

Chester the cat luxuriates in such symbols of elegance as long white limousines.
white Chrysler 300C limousine: N-Lange.de at German Wikipedia, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_Chrysler_300C_stretch.jpg

Chester the cat appreciates the red carpet treatment.
Pfeil Strasse, Köln (Cologne), west central Germany: Janos Korom Dr. from Wien, Austria, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K%C3%B6ln_513.jpg

"Chester's Back" (1:02)
Uploaded November 23, 2011, by Philip Kuckyt to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzCBFtpq3y4

Chester the cat highly prizes red jellybeans.
"A sea of jellybeans 4"; Old Ottawa East, Capital Ward (Ward 17), central Ottawa, southeastern Ontario, Central Canada: hairyhenderson, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/hairyhenderson/3915673848/

Watt, Mélanie. 2008. Chester's Back! Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and Tonawanda, NY, U.S.A.: Kids Can Press.