Millions of Cats (1928)

Millions of Cats. Wanda Gag. 1928. Penguin. 40 pages. [Source: Library]

Once upon a time there was a very old man and a very old woman. They lived in a nice clean house which had flowers all around it, except where the door was. But they couldn't be happy because they were so very lonely. 
"If we only had a cat!" sighed the very old woman. "A cat?" asked the very old man. "Yes, a sweet little fluffy cat," said the very old woman. "I will get you a cat, my dear," said the very old man.
And he set out over the hills to look for one. 

Millions of Cats is a Newbery Honor book from 1929.

Premise/Plot: A very old man and a very old woman long for a cat. The husband goes on a quest to bring back a "sweet little fluffy cat" to please them both. Is his quest successful? Yes. A little too successful. For in fact he finds

Cats here, cats there,
Cats and kittens everywhere,
Hundreds of cats,
Thousands of cats,
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.

How is he ever to choose just ONE cat from so many?! Especially since as he picks up or pets each one he sees, he finds it to be the prettiest cat. He can't bring himself to leave any of the cats behind. But it isn't practical to bring home hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, and trillions of cats. You can probably guess what his wife's response will be! Surely, they can't keep them all. For better or worse, he lets the cats decide amongst themselves. One scrawny cat remains, but, it may be the best one of all.

My thoughts: I loved this one growing up. I loved the repetition. I thought it was a fun story. I didn't--at the time--take the man's conclusion that the trillions of cats ate each other up literally. Is the book violent? Perhaps. Perhaps not. See for yourself.  "They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a great noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into the house as fast as they could. They did not like such quarreling." This one might pair well with Eugene Field's "The Duel." (The gingham dog and the calico cat).

Have you read Millions of Cats? Did you like it? love it? hate it?

© 2015 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Everything on a Waffle (2001)

Everything on a Waffle. Polly Horvath. 2001/2008. Square Fish. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

There were things about Polly Horvath's Everything On a Waffle that I liked. I liked the heroine, Primrose Squarp. I liked how unique she was. She had a unique way of seeing the world around her, a unique perspective on just about everyone in town. The novel opens with tragedy, what most people would call tragedy. Primrose loses her mom and dad to a storm. Her dad was out sailing, her mom saw how horrible the storm was, got worried and left in another boat to go find him. Every single person in town, and, most every person from out of town who hears the story, concludes that Primrose's parents are dead. Their bodies have not been recovered, but, they are most certainly dead. Primrose arrives at the opposite conclusion. Her parents are not dead. They are not. They may be marooned on an island. They may be missing for a time. But her parents are most definitely alive. Many well intentioned folks in town encourage Primrose to come to terms with what has happened, to grieve her parents, to react and feel. But instead of Primrose coming to terms with her loss, it is the town who ends up coming to terms with Primrose and her unending optimism. No one is quite sure what to make of Primrose, she's just Primrose.

After a few weeks, Uncle Jack comes to stay with Primrose. Uncle Jack doesn't demand much from Primrose. He doesn't demand that she get in touch with her emotions and talk it all out. He lets Primrose be herself. And he accepts Primrose pretty much as is. And she does the same. Both are flawed beings, if you will. They seem to fit together well enough.

Miss Honeycut watches Primrose closely. She does not think Primrose is doing well at all. She thinks Primrose needs something that Uncle Jack could never give her.

One of the things that sets the book apart are the recipes at the end of every chapter. Also the small town quirky charm. I absolutely loved the idea of THE GIRL IN THE SWING restaurant. I loved the owner. I loved the idea that EVERYTHING on the menu came with waffles. Very unique.

As I said, I liked this one. I didn't love it.

© 2014 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Afternoon of the Elves (1989)

Afternoon of the Elves. Janet Taylor Lisle. 1989. Scholastic. 128 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I enjoyed reading Afternoon of the Elves. At its heart, the novel is simply about an unlikely friendship, and how that friendship impacts the two girls. Sara-Kate is the oldest of the girls. She does not have any friends at school. She is not exactly invisible, but, her real self is not seen by anyone. If Sara-Kate were successfully invisible at school, perhaps the girls would not go to so much trouble to talk about her all the time, to tell of scandalous doings, to share every rumor, perhaps to invent every rumor. They are noticing Sara-Kate for all the wrong reasons: she doesn't look like me, she doesn't dress like me, she doesn't act like me, she doesn't talk like me. Hillary, the youngest girl, is Sara-Kate's neighbor. Sara-Kate has NEVER to anyone's knowledge invited another girl to play with her. But she does invite Hillary into her backyard. She shows her an elf-village. Hillary isn't exactly sure that elves are real, that they do in fact live in a village in her neighbor's backyard. But the "proof" of such a village does exist. And together these two girls meet almost daily through the fall. They keep it to the yard. They keep the subjects limited. No probing questions on subjects Sara-Kate would rather avoid. But. Hillary, eventually, comes to realize that some of the rumors she thought were mere lies had some basis in truth.

The book is interesting. Sara-Kate is mysterious: veiling her darkest truths but at the same time showing glimpses here and there that do hint at her desperate need to be seen and loved and helped. Hillary is observant enough to know that Sara-Kate likes to have control, that she hates to be vulnerable. She comes to think of her friend as an elf, having all the elf qualities that she learns about from Sara-Kate. Hillary does make decisions. She decides to NOT listen to her friends. She chooses to befriend Sara-Kate even though no one else likes her. She does decide to go over to her friend's house every day despite the fact that her mother does not approve. She decides that her mother just doesn't know Sara-Kate, and that her mother is wrong to think the worst of Sara-Kate and her mother. She decides to steal money from her mother's purse to help Sara-Kate when she realizes that her friend has no food in the house. Hillary never has to make the hardest decision. She never has to make the ultimate choice of keeping her friend's secret no matter what, or, telling her mom. I'm not sure what Hillary would have decided.

© 2014 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews