It’s International Cat Day!

Let’s talk about some titles with cats as their theme!

MILLIONS OF CATS,
by Wanda Gág
This is considered the first American modern picture book. Before 1928, most picture books in the United States were imported from Europe or relied on standard separated text and static art. Millions of Cats was one of the first books to use double-page spreads where the art flows across both pages to tell the story. It won a Newbery Honor in 1929. It’s the story of an old man and an old woman who were very lonely and decided to get a cat. But when the old man went out searching, he found not one cat, but millions and billions and trillions of cats! Unable to decide which one would be the best pet, he brought them all home.

SIMON’S CAT,
by Simon Tofield
This artist started out publishing his animations about he and his demanding cat online, mostly on YouTube, and the book came afterwards. The cat’s daily escapades accentuate the hilarious and typical behavior of cats everywhere.

THE CAT WHO COULD READ BACKWARDS, by Lillian Jackson Braun
This is the first in Braun’s series of “The Cat Who…” cozy mysteries. She wrote the first in 1966, penned a couple more, and then wrote hardcore crime fiction for 18 years before returning to fill out this series; she ended up writing 29 of them. One reviewer on Goodreads says, “I have never seen a cat-themed novel depict a human / feline relationship better than Lillian’s do.” The characters and writing are quirky, the mysteries are offbeat, and it’s a good cup-of-tea rainy-day read.

POETRY FOR CATS: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse, by Henry Beard
What if famous poets’ cats also wrote poetry? Pretty funny if you are not familiar with the original works but even better if you are.

I situate myself, and seat myself,
And where you recline I shall recline,
For every armchair belonging to you as good as belongs to me…

—Walt Whitman’s cat

If you can disappear when all about you / Are madly searching for you everywhere, / And then just when they start to leave without you, / Turn up as if you always were right there; / If you can shed your hair in any season, / And cough up half of all that you devour, / And rush from room to room without a reason, / Then sit and stare at nothing for an hour…
—Rudyard Kipling’s cat

Do not go peaceable to that damn vet, / A cat can always tell a trip is due, / Hide, hide, when your appointment time is set.
—Dylan Thomas’s cat

Just a few to get you started—you can find thousands more in the “lists” category on Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5848.Cat_Lovers_List


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