The Twenty-Five Mixtec Cats - Hardcover

Gollub, Matthew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688116396 ISBN 13: 9780688116392

Publisher: Tambourine, 1993

Synopsis

The healer in an Oaxacan village returns from market with 25 kittens, but the unfamiliar animals are viewed by the townspeople with suspicion and scorn. When an evil spell threatens the local butcher, the healer and his cats save her life and win the villagers' hearts. "Succeeds on all levels....The story is told in easy colloquial English that has the cadenced feel of Spanish. The illustrations are remarkable."--School Library Journal.

About this title

About the Author

In His Own Words...

"Though I wasn't what you'd call a bookish kid, I knew from the fifth grade that I liked to write. I'd discovered the joys of composing words that elicited some guffaws from my peers. Next to shooting baskets on the playground, writing was the activity for me.

"When I was 14, 1 had the opportunity to spEND

the summer with a family in Quito, Ecuador. There, I first learned how to get along in Spanish. A voyage to the Galapagos and bus journeys through the jungle ignited my lifelong love of travel. Later, I graduated from the University of the Pacific with degrees in International Studies and Japanese language. Overseas studies led to overseas jobsas a copywriter, newscaster, and touring member of a Japanese taiko drum troupe. The broader a writer's experiences, I figured, the richer his perspective would be.

"Translating and writing ads for an ad agency provided good technical training. Since I hadn't majored in English or journalism, I was grateful to hone my skills on the job. But the more I worked within the confines of that field, the more I wanted to create my own stories.

"In 1990, 1 went to Oaxaca, Mexico, where a friEND

introduced me to Leovigildo Martinez. A jovial spirit and a magnificent painter, Leo introduced me to Oaxacan markets and villages. As a fine artist, he had never illustrated books but suggested we collaborate on Oaxacan tales for children. The idea was to take threads of existing folklore, then create stories to be understood universally. The region's phenomenal array of indigenous cultures-their pyramids, textiles, fiestas, and crafts-posed too delicious a challenge to turn down. Although I had never written for children, I told Leo, "Me gusto la idea."

"I based our first book, The Twenty-five Mixtec Cots, on my experiences with a Oaxacan healer. The title for our second book, The Moon Was at a Fiesta, was borrowed from a proverb Leo taught me that explains why the moon is sometimes out in the morning. Travels through countries such as India and Japan have inspired other books in progress. I feel stories in foreign settings are of great value to children, and that ultimately the world's peoples must learn from each other to solve the many problems we face.

"At home, I find inspiration to write from playing drums. I have conga drums, bongo drums, a drum set, and a Middle Eastern dumbek, on which I am fond of tapping rhythms between composing paragraphs. For this reason, I do not live in apartments, and colleagues do not invite me to share office space with them.

"Writing children's books has lead to invitations to visit schools, where I enjoy presenting my stories in English and Spanish, playing hand drums, and showing slides. My interests since fifth grade have broadened but not changed. Writing is still the activity for me, but I now prefer to play basketball in a gym."

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 6-- It is a rare original folktale that has the feeling and sensibility of the real thing, and this one succeeds on all levels. A healer from a little village in Oaxaca makes a bare-bones living from his craft. One day, at the Mixtec market, he is given 25 kittens. Thinking to sell them in his village, where no one has cats, he takes them home in a pillowcase. But none of the superstitious villagers will take one, so he becomes their owner. Though the animals grow into loyal and useful helpers to the good man, the people remain suspicious of them. Finally, when the butcher is placed under a spell by an evil healer, it is the cats who save her, and peace comes to the village. The story is told in easy colloquial English that has the cadenced feel of Spanish. The illustrations are remarkable. Done in predominantly desert hues of yellow, ocher, blue, and pink, in a primitive, folk style, the bordered watercolors bring the text to life. The people are bulky and have a sense of volume created by the use of white space. Their faces resemble those of the cats, giving an eerie relatedness to the characters. This is a tale that children will pore over and want to hear again and again. Stronger in narrative line than The Woman Who Outshone the Sun (Children's Book Pr, 1991) by Alejandro Cruz Martinez, it's a sound introduction to some of the elements of Mexican folklore. --Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mysticism and superstition underlie this humorous Mexican folktale, the debut of both author and artist. An impoverished healer buys a litter of kittens with the hope of reselling them, only to encounter the mistrust of the villagers who "imagined wild things." Fears that "they eat mice but also cows," and "they'll set fire to our fields" drive the townspeople to hire an evil healer to dispose of the cats. The pack of coyotes she dispatches prove to be no match for the crafty felines, who ultimately win the hearts of the villagers by helping the good healer save the butcher's life. Martinez's whimsical, masterfully executed watercolors are rendered in sundried pastels and sandy earthtones befitting the South-of-the-border locale. Surrounded by wide margins full of mischievous cats, prowling coyotes and various Indian icons, the paintings seem tipped onto their fanciful backgrounds--a particularly eye-catching technique. Faces manage to appear at once stylized and realistic, while shading and shadow are used throughout to striking effect. Indeed, the artwork somewhat eclipses the text here: Gollub's prose is always serviceable--and occasionally more--but some passages seem repetitious and overlong. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tambourine
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688116396
• ISBN 13: 9780688116392
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Martinez Leovigildo
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32