A lovely story with exquisite water colour illustrations of life in the simple town of St Ives, and the life of one small cat who is alone in the world. Enjoying the summer, the old sailing cat now lives in the curch on the hill. Through Autumn as it gets cooler, the cat goes down to the village and a friendly child gives him fish, from the day's catch. The cat sees a donkey and a horse playing in a field and envies them their friendship, whilst being irritated at the dog which is always racing past, barking.
In Winter he gets increasingly desperate, with no food, and no shelter, and the illustrations show the town lit up with christmas lights and revelry.
Venturing into town he is shunned, chased and eventually scared back off to his hill as the snow falls wistfully down on the door stoops, decorated with holly wreathes and santa slinks behind the fish traps.
Like the good king Wencelaus through the snow arrive the donkey, mule, dog and boy, laden with gifts for the cat, and they set up a little tent which looks like a manger in the middle of the snow, the cat in the boys lap and all the segulls, mice and rabbits circled around. It looks just like a nativity scene, which is quite amusing.
The last page:
"Bells ding-dong across the bay, and the sea turns silver in the moonlight. My friends and I sit warm on our hill between
all the stars of Heaven and Earth."
I liked the cat's ornery perspective & simple direct relating of events & emotions.
The cat uses "damned", which is something to consider for your children.
Deeply impressed with the quality of the watercolour paintings, they're extremely good, and portray a wonderful feeling of all the seasons, and I loved the crabby cat, who has a happy ending.
Kotori 28'Nov, 2004
