How the Cat Swallowed Thunder

Grade 2-4-Professed cat lovers Alexander and Schachner have produced a truly charming story that's part fantasy and part fond tribute to their favorite household pet. When the Cat spends a day fishing around in Mother Holly's house instead of cleaning it up according to her instructions, he stumbles onto all kinds of trouble: her watering can becomes a rainmaker, her bellows generate a furious wind, and her popping corn rumbles like thunder. It seems he can't touch anything without creating a meteorological maelstrom within the woman's four tidy walls. Frantic to cover his tracks, Cat successfully cleans up his various messes, save for one small kernel of corn. Panicked, he pops it into his mouth, ingesting with it a muffled rumbling sound that Mother Holly loves, resulting in the first cat to purr. Alexander's original folktale evokes Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories while turning Aesop on his familiar head; in the end, the only life-lesson the Cat learns is that he can charm his way out of any predicament with the right kind of spin control. Coupled with Schachner's homespun, crazy-quilt illustrations-everything in Mother Holly's house is stuffed with down and stitched by hand-the result is pure enchantment. Children will enjoy this book when read aloud as much as they will when they curl up with it on their own.
Catherine T. Quattlebaum, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Like the sorcerer's apprentice, Cat has more than he can handle when Mother Holly leaves him in charge of her cottage. To clean up a spill, Cat uses the watering can, but it unexpectedly causes a full-fledged rainstorm; the bellows he uses to fan a fire whip up howling winds; and popping corn produces thunderbolts. Alexander (The House Gobbaleen; the Prydain series) doesn't explain the mysterious occurrences until Mother Holly's return. At that point Mother Holly discloses that she uses her watering can for April showers, her bellows for March winds, etc. Cat is convinced he's going to be punished, until a kernel of corn he has swallowed makes his stomach rumble and his "marvelous song" makes Mother Holly "happy and peaceful"Athe story has opened in a time "when the Cat had no purr." Unfortunately, this pourquoi tale of magic and mayhem has such a complicated plot and so many loose ends that a young reader could easily end up as befuddled as Cat himself. Older readers, however, will enjoy Alexander's rhythmical sentences and witty dialogue. Schachner's (The Grannyman) cartoonish watercolors convey the slapstick humor and chaos, but her googly-eyed characters are often less appealing than the background details. Children will enjoy spotting carved owl bedposts, cat nesting dolls lined up on a windowsill and, especially, the two mice who appear on each page. Ages 5-9. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.