Genre 2: Stories to Tell a Cat

Stories to Tell a Cat by Alvin Schwartz
The Trumpet Club, 1992
ISBN 0-440-83296-9

Summary:
Alvin Schwartz retells fourteen short tales about cats in "Stories to Tell a Cat." All of the tales have roots in traditional tales from around the world, and Schwartz maps each tale's genealogy in a section at the end of the book.
An author's note at the beginning explains that Schwartz enjoys telling his own cat these tales as "a nice cozy way to spend an evening."

Critical Analysis:
A reader need not be a cat lover to enjoy this book, although cat owners would be especially enchanted. The book is a combination of various types of folktales centered around cats.
I was amazed by the breadth of the stories: poems, fables, and fairytales alongside downright spooky tales. "The Cat Came Back" even includes a sung chorus!
An adult reader looking for surprising, inspirational stories will be disappointed, but as long as the reader understands these traditional tales will sound familiar, the stories are entertaining.

Review Excerpts:

"Though you'd never know it by looking at the fetching dust jacket (a perky green parrot sits atop the head of a friendly looking marmalade cat), this collection of cat stuff isn't for children who want to read about cuddly critters. In fact, the late Schwartz's first story reads very much like a horror tale. . . . But even though Schwartz's cats rarely purr sweetly, they are certainly an intriguing lot. In 'Make-Believe Cats,' for example, cats sketched on a screen spring heroically to life to save a boy from rats; and in 'The Fastest Cat on Earth,' a funny takeoff on the familiar fable about the tortoise and the hare, a self-satisfied feline meets its match in a clever crab."

Stephanie Zvirin

Booklist, December 15 1992, v. 89

"Some of the selections are familiar; . . . 'The Make-Believe Cats,' about a boy whose drawings come alive, is an Americanized version of a well-known Japanese folktale with the same motif. 'The Ship's Cat' and others are more unusual, but overall, the retellings are uneven. While 'The Green Chicken' . . . is tightly written and funny, 'Rosie and Arthur' (about a bad dream) is anticlimactic, and 'The Nest' (a variant of 'Belling the Tiger') is meandering. Nevertheless, Schwartz has an easy-to-read style and the book's format will invite cat-lovers to browse through and pick out their favorites. The author's notes are, as always, informal and helpful; only the first title in the bibliography is annotated."

Betsy Hearne
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 1993, v. 46

Connections:
Compare and contrast cats from the various tales.

Write more verses to "The Cat Came Back."

Research the role of cats in ancient Egyptian culture.

Research the mythical origins of other animals after reading "A Tail of Grass."