Fiona and the Peculiar Praise - Rennie Dyball - ★★★

AUTHOR: Rennie Dyball

ILLUSTRATOR: Maine Diaz

GENRE: Children's Picture Book.

PUBLICATION DATE: May 13, 2025.

RATING: 3 stars.

In a Nutshell: A cute picture book about being seen for more than your looks. Great thought and message, but the execution could have been smoother. Still, I appreciate the point it makes. The illustrations are wonderful.

Plot Preview:

Fiona, short for ‘Queen Fiona of Apartment 4C’, is a white Persian cat, and as amazing as all cats are. She stays with her human parents and sister Lou, and does her best to show them varied aspects of her personality. However, they notice only her looks. Why can’t they see beyond Fiona’s beauty?

The cutie on the cover was a big factor in my getting this picture book. The title also played a role in stirring my curiosity. “Peculiar Praise” – great alliteration, but what could it mean? The story covers this aspect well.

The lesson the book aims to impart is a necessary one. Today’s society is big on physical appeal. So much so that a majority of those who post personal photographs on social media use filters. Even in real life, the first point of judgement is almost always based on how someone looks. Women resort to artificial measures to keep looking younger than their years, even if the result makes them look like plastic Barbie dolls. As such, the book offers a good reminder that looks are just superficial and behaviour counts more. Every article on effective parenting states that one should praise/criticise not the child but the behaviour. This is just an extension of the same thought: focus not on looks but on behaviour.

While the intent is good, the execution could have worked better for me. We see the humans only through Fiona’s eyes, so they are distanced from us. Lou doesn’t get any chance to speak, except at the end when she suddenly changes everyone’s opinions – a bit abrupt. Further, the whole story takes place on a single day, which doesn’t explain why the “trouble started this morning.” Fiona’s reactions would have made better sense if the plot indicated how she is always judged by looks instead of restricting it to one day in her life.

Moreover, despite what the title suggests, the humans in Fiona’s life aren’t really “praising” her in the true sense of the word in most of the scenes. Fiona seems bugged by how the humans address her (‘lovely’, ‘gorgeous’, ‘pretty’), which is not the same thing as praise. The only scene where Fiona’s stand on ‘praise’ is valid is where she plays with the cat toy and her family sees just her cuteness and nothing else. The reasons for Fiona’s irritation could thus have been handled better in order to justify the title.

Finally, the corrective behaviour suggested by the book is needed more by adults than children. Most kids don’t judge based on looks or skin colour. They imbibe these negative habits from the adults in their lives. As such, I can only hope that the moral of this picture book gets out to at least those adults co-reading the book with their little ones. For kids, this might just end up as a cute kitty story.

The story is written in Fiona’s first-person perspective, so her reactions to the human comments come out well. I love how she indulges in typical cat activities with one intention, but her human family always mistakes it for something else. (The toilet-paper antic was left unexplained though.) There are many funny moments in the story, thanks to Fiona’s thoughts as well as actions. (Fiona is such a purrfect feline name, right?😍)

The illustrations are really cute, with the soft pastels suiting the vibe. (A shoutout to the cute cat-face table mat!) As Fiona’s fur is snow-white, the sketches use shadows and shading well in making her look even floofier. Her expressions are also amazing! The human parents appear too young and the mother seems overdressed for an ordinary day at home, but after reading such a book, it would be ironic if I judge them for their appearance, right? 🤭

Overall, this was a decent picture book with an important message, but the illustrations outshine the content, which needs a bit of finetuning. I still appreciate the intention.

Recommended to little readers, whether cat lovers or not. The text makes this a suitable option for ages 3-7, though the message is probably more relevant to parents and would work better with discussion.

My thanks to 4U2B Books & Media for providing the DRC of “Fiona and the Peculiar Praise” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.