My name is Skippyito Friskito, I fear not a single bandito!
The SkippyJon Jones children’s book series is about a hyperactive Siamese kitten, Skippyjon Jones, with a fantastic (and hilarious) identity crisis on his hands! His head and ears are too big for his tiny kitten body, and his imagination is too insane for his mama and sisters.
In the first of several SkippyJon Jones books, Mama says that SkippyJon needs to do some serious thinking about what it means to be a Siamese cat instead of a bird (Skippyjon always wakes up and eats worms with his feathered friends). So she sends him to his room, where he imagines he is a Chihuahua (“My name is Skippito Friskito, I fear not a single bandito!”). Chock-full of rhyming chants and Spanish expressions, the feline’s canine adventure as a doggy Zorro ends in chaos. His frazzled mother gives him a hug anyway and says, “Say good night, Skippyjon Jones.” “Buenas noches, mis amigos,” says SkippyJon Jones, as he bounces on his bed all ready for another adventure. The spectacular and colorful cartoon illustrations match the brilliant content perfectly.
Spanish-speaking children will be especially delighted by the words and humor; others may be a little bewildered by all of the foreign phrases and will need some explanation, but the SkippyJon Jones books are perfect for a silly dad (like me) to read aloud to their children. We get way too silly at our house, so SkippyJon Jones is not the last book we read before bed time, but one of the five or six books from the series is typically read at some point most days of the week.
The most recent SkippyJon Jones book is called “SkippyJon Jones: Class Action“. You may think, “Oh great, another random character-goes-to-school book”…totally not the case. This little guy is way too unique and the author, Judith Byron Schachner, is absolutely brilliant. El Skippito wants to go to school, but his Mama says that school is for dogs, not cats. It’s where dogs go to get trained, says Mama. So SkippyJon goes into his closet and his imagination wisks him away to school where he encounters many adventures with his best buddies, the Chimigango gang.
Judith Byron Schachner is on a serious roll with this series. I don’t know where she gets her amazing imagination from, but she’s truly a one of a kind talent. You can see all of her books here at Childrensbookstore.com.
SkippyJon is a true character and a household favorite!
Enjoy.
Brian