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Cats are introduced into our lives almost from birth and become popular companions through the books, songs and nursery rhymes shared with babies and children. From the very beginning the nursery rhymes “The Three Little Kittens” and “Hey Diddle Diddle”, the stories “The Tale Of Tom Kitten”, “Puss In Boots”, and “The Owl And The Pussycat” and many, many more introduce cats and kittens to us and become part of our world. As beginning readers children discover “The Cat In The Hat”, “Kittens First Full Moon”, “Bad Kitty”, “Mog The Cat” and so many more. Through these books the cat becomes part of the daily life of the young, whether they have actually ever encountered a real cat or not.
Books for beginning and emerging readers are full of cat characters – and children love them! Goodreads has a list of 428 children’s picture books about cats!
428!!!!
And these are picture books!!!
And these are books where the cat is the main character. There are many other books with cats as secondary characters such as Wilbur the cat in “Winnie The Witch” by Korky Paul and Valerie Thomas.
Every season there are new picture books for tiny readers featuring beautiful illustrations, or comical ones, which seal the popularity of cats in the world of print.
It is no wonder we have such a love affair with these creatures!!
For middle school readers one of the most popular books for middle grades is the Warrior Cat series by Erin Hunter which runs to over 30 books, has a Manga series, a Super series, has several parts, and a set of guides to help readers untangle all the cat characters. Favorites with both girls and boys these books are incredibly popular and have a huge fan base. These warrior cats have clans and family trees and have elaborate worlds for young readers to explore and decipher. And they are cats.
Peabody Library
Any list also has to include “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” by Lewis Carrol featuring the Cheshire Cat and “Socks” by Beverly Cleary (author of the Ramona series) both from a time gone by, but still widely read and popular.
Young readers aren’t the only ones catered to with cat literature, and adults can find many books featuring cats as the main character, or a leading character. The writer Paul Gallico penned several books featuring cats as the main character, most notably “Thomasina, The Cat That Thought She Was God” which was adapted into a movie by Disney. “Incredible Journey” by Sheila Burnford centers on a cat and two dogs and their quest to return home across the country. This also was made into a movie by Disney, and was then remade again. “Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, while not a book but a short story, is part of the annual Halloween cycle of things to scare yourself with.
Cat ‘memoirs’ take writing from novel to biographical or semi-biographical. The English veterinarian James Herriot’s “All Creatures Great And Small ” and “Cat Stories” share his accounts of life on a Yorkshire farm and the animals he encounters. “Dewey The Small Town Library Cat That Touched The World” by Vicki Myron, which chronicles the impact one small kitten had on a town and “A Street Cat Name Bob: How One Man And His Cat Found Hope On The Streets” by James Bowen which might just be a several tissue book. This is just to name a few books featuring true life stories about cats.
Don’t forget poetry.
From the magical T.S Eliot “Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats” (that was turned into the exceedingly popular and successful musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Weber), to individual poems from great writers of literature (Yeats, Keats, Ruskin, Wilde, Rilke, Borges – the list is endless) the cat is honored with beautifully scripted words that speak of adulation and adoration.
Short stories.
Funny books.
Animated cats.
Manga.
There are thousands of works of fiction available to lose yourself in featuring cats. From the great names in literature to new, unheard of writers. Cat’s are constant source of story telling material. Why not go and check some out?
