The Tortilla Cat - Hardcover

Willard, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152895876 ISBN 13: 9780152895877

Publisher: Harcourt Brace, 1998

Synopsis

A magical little cat bearing a tortilla on a tray cures each of Doctor Romero's five children after they all take ill with the same fever that took his wife, in a whimsical picture book.

About this title

About the Authors

Nancy Willard (born June 26, 1936) is a novelist, a poet, and a children's writer and occasional illustrator. Her 1981 collection of poems, A Visit to William Blake's Inn, won the Newbery Medal as that year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.

Willard was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she later received the B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and won five Hopwood Awards for creative writing. She also studied at Stanford University, where she received her M.A.

JEANETTE WINTER has written and illustrated many books for children, including MAMA, The Librarian of Basra, Calavera Abecedario: A Day of the Dead Alphabet Book, My Name Is Georgia, and Josefina. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

Grade 2-4?Doctor Romero can cure anything?except the fever that takes his wife. He does the best he can to take care of his children on his own, feeding them and keeping the house clean. He gives them whatever they want?except for a pet. As the children fall ill with the same disease that killed their mother, they claim to be saved by a little gray cat that recites a nonsense rhyme and feeds them a magic tortilla. Dr. Romero strongly insists that the children are hallucinating, but when he, too, is stricken, he is also cured by the cat. Restored, he hears a mewing at the door, and finds five cats on the mat?one for each child. This is a charming little fable that, if not Willard's most distinguished work, is still engaging. Winter's acrylic illustrations have a rounded, primitive look. The bright colors and strong lines add to the sense of magic that permeates the book. An easy-to-read story with real child appeal.?Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When each of the five Romero kids come down with the same fever that killed their mother and many people in the community, their father, a doctor, fears for their lives. Each sick child has a vision of a cat who speaks a catchy rhyming refrain and bears a tray with a tortilla. The children become well, and claim it was the Tortilla Cat who cured them. Dr. Romero believes the cat is more fever dream than real, but when he becomes ill, the cat appears to him, leaving five kittensone for each childas a remembrance. The connection or significance of the kittens is never really clear, which turns an enjoyable read into a rather abstract adventure, but the Latin American flavor of Winter's surreal illustrations restores much of the magic. (Fiction. 6-10) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. People say that Doctor Romero can cure anything, until a fever kills his dear wife. In the icy cold weather, one by one his five children get deathly ill. Each time, the doctor can do nothing to cure them; each time, a little gray cat arrives with a magic tortilla, and the child gets better. The sensible, scientific doctor insists that the cat is a dream, a delusion, part of the children's delirium--until the doctor himself gets sick, and, of course, the tortilla cat saves him. Then, finally, he admits the kittens into his house, one pet for each child. The mother's death and all the critical illness is heavy for young readers, but the message is lightened by the father's gentleness and by Winter's brightly colored, framed acrylic paintings in folk-art style, exactly right for the warm Latino family story with flights of magic realism. Children will enjoy seeing that the all-powerful, rational authority is defeated by magic. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Brace
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152895876
• ISBN 13: 9780152895877
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Winter Jeanette
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48