MILLIONS OF CATS- A book review for Children's Lit

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gag, Wanda. 1928. MILLIONS OF CATS. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0698113632

PLOT SUMMARY

An old lady and an old man feel lonely, so the old man sets off on a journey to bring home a pet cat.  He finds “millions and billions and trillions” of cats, but he can’t determine which is the prettiest to take home. So, of course, he takes them all home.  They decimate the land on their way back to his home, and upon their arrival, the old lady tells him that they cannot keep so many cats.  The elderly couple go into the house to let the cats decide which cat will stay with them, and when they go back out, the cats have “eaten each other all up”.  All that remains is one small, bedraggled kitten.  They take it inside, tend to it, and it becomes a beautiful cat that brings them joy.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

I’m not going to lie to you.  I do not care for this book at all. Truthfully, I absolutely detest it. At first I felt like there was something wrong with me because this is a classic (first published in 1928).  But then I found out I am not alone.  In Travis Jonker’s game “One Star Review Guess Who?”(100scopenotes.com), episode 58, our book MILLIONS OF CATS is the winner with the clue: “literally the hunger games for cats…” With that in mind...

Gag writes this story in traditional folktale format starting with “once upon a time” and proceeds to use repetitive language and rhyme patterns to create a well-written text.  How can a child not be drawn in by “cats here, cats there, cats and kittens everywhere”? She also uses repetition in the actions of the man going and returning on his journey “over the sunny hills and through the cool valleys” as well as the actions of him selecting all of the cats.   Gag pulls the end together with more repetition and rhythm to add her final line “not one was as pretty as this one” and deliver the theme of her story.

The illustrations in this picture book are fantastic.  Keeping in mind the time period, the pen and ink drawings are detailed and creative.  As the old man takes his journey to the cats, the landscape grows and stretches across the pages.  These landscape illustrations are breathtaking.  The borders of the artwork grow and curve and bubble and you actually have the sense of movement as you travel with the old man down the road. As the kitten grows, you watch her frame by frame become a “plump” kitty. 

All in all, the story is beautifully written and has brilliantly drawn illustrations.  The time period creates two issues that the parent/teacher/librarian will need to choose how to address before reading with the students.  There are some diction choices that will need to be addressed with young readers unfamiliar with the vocabulary-either frontloaded or left for the student to analyze as they read.  Also, the old man is smoking a pipe at a few places in the story, and that may need to be addressed as well. If you are comfortable with the cats “quarreling” (ie. killing each other en masse), the story does teach a lesson that pretty is in the eye of the beholder, and vanity will kill you.

So, while I won’t be reading this book to my young daughter any time soon, I do see the merit in the artistry Gag used in both her language and images.    

AWARDS AND REVIEWS

*Newbery Honor Award

*Oldest picture book continuously in print (which I think is noteworthy)

*Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

*Picture Book Hall of Fame Inductee 2017

*#21 Top 100 Picture Books by School Library Journal

*The New York Times- “A perennial favorite”

*School Library Journal- “Considered by many to have ushered in the age of the modern picture book, this Newbery Honor winner is characterized by innovative design and a strong storyteller’s cadence.”

*Amazon- “… a wonderful tale of vanity versus humility”

CONNECTIONS

*IN THE HOUSE OF THE NIGHT is another book with cats written in Gag’s style

*For older students, read as a companion to THE HUNGER GAMES and discuss similarities.

*Other works by Gag: THE FUNNY THING, SNIPPY AND SNAPPY, THE ABC BUNNY.

Photos taken from: https://www.amazon.com/Millions-Cats-Picture-Puffin-Books/dp/0142407089