Author Spotlight: Ruth Anderson Lawler

A Chaos of Kittens Meets a Knot of Toads tells a story using unique terms to describe groups of animals. Some of these terms are almost 1,000 years old, having been made up by English and Frenchmen, mostly sportsmen and hunters on horseback, during the French conquest of England starting in 1066. Some familiar terms such as a gaggle of geese are still in use today, but these forgotten names are so entertaining modern readers will be delighted to see them used again. The chaos takes place in the imaginary land of critter crowds where the kittens have brought about the misery of indigestion and burping among the knot of toads and smack of jellyfish at the Toad Pond. The noise being made and the pebbles being kicked into the pond by the kittens at play have caused a hearing to be called by a parliament of owls who select a jury of six, one purple dragon, two mice and three wombats to decide what to do about it. A pounce of cats arrive to defend the kittens followed in part by an unkindness of ravens, a leap of leopards, and a crash of rhinoceros all trying to help. Soon the hearing becomes too loud for anyone to decide who is at fault or how to fix it. When their leader the lion McNabb shows up everyone learns that by working together with a good plan and orderly cooperation their problems can be solved.