Minnie

A charming novel for children filled with humor in the manner of James Thurber. Miss Minnie is a cat--or rather, she was a cat. Although she doesn't know why, she is now a human, and she's not at all happy to be one. When newspaper reporter Mr. Tibbs rescues Minnie-the-human from a large dog, she repays him by supplying news from the cats' gossip hotline. Illustrated.

Grade 4-6-This gentle fantasy, originally published in the Netherlands, is a story of transformations. Tibbs is a small-town newspaper reporter who is about to lose his job because he's too shy to write about anything besides cats and the weather. Minnie is a ginger cat who turns into a human and is driven from her home. They meet, and together they grow into people who are ready to take (almost) normal places in society. Minnie, who can still speak with other felines, gathers news for Tibbs to write about, and the man is driven to conquer his shyness by the need to unmask the evil deeds of a heartless (dog-owning) industrialist, Mr. Elbow. The setting, a small European village, will seem idyllic to many readers and adds to the slightly strange, unfamiliar mood of the tale. The black-line drawings catch the oddity of a person carrying out cat behaviors. This book lacks the sheer magic of Ursula K. Le Guin's Catwings (Orchard, 1988) and the robust adventure of Lloyd Alexander's The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man (Dutton, 1977), but has a charm of its own that will appeal to graduates of Esther Averill's "Jenny and the Cat Club" series (HarperCollins).
Margaret Chatham, formerly at Smithtown Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Winner of numerous prizes (including the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award), Schmidt has concocted a marvelous meditation on the meaning of being human--written from a distinctly feline point of view. Poor Tibbs is a super-shy newspaper reporter about to be fired from his job because he seems able to write only about cats. Then he meets Miss Minnie, an unusual young woman prone to darting up trees, rooting through the trash for fish bones, and slipping her head under his hand in order to be stroked. It seems that Miss Minnie is a cat; or was one, until she ate tainted trash from a biochemical research lab. Now she's a cat trapped in a woman's body, and she must navigate the tricky terrain between the world of humans and that of felines. Since she still speaks ``cattish,'' she is able to hook up with all the town's cats and thus provide Tibbs with the kind of inside scoop that sets his editor beaming. But then she uncovers a very nasty story about one of the town's most prominent citizens. Will Tibbs risk his newfound stature at the newspaper to print a story substantiated only by cats? And will Miss Minnie ever return to her feline origins? And does she even want to? The answers to all these questions are to be found in this fanciful yet substantial book that is sure to become a classic. The ho-hum illustrations can't detract from its sheer delight. (Fiction. 8+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Minnie, once a cat, has suddenly--and inexplicably--become a young woman. But she still purrs, climbs trees, rubs up against people and generally acts like a feline. Minnie's sister turns up her tail and her aunt scolds her ("How on earth did it happen, Minnie? To you of all people, from one of the finest cat families in Chillthorn!"); on other hand, a man named Tibbs, a struggling reporter, invites her in to stay, and gives her a box and milk to drink from a saucer. Minnie, with her plethora of cat contacts about town, lets Tibbs in on scoops no human could ever get; Tibbs helps Minnie develop human feelings and behavior. The playful premise of this Dutch import could bear more playful treatment (there is, for example, an unnecessary attempt to settle the unconventional friendship between Tibbs and Minnie with a prediction of their eventual marriage), but there are genuinely funny moments, such as Minnie's trip to a psychiatrist. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3-6. Mr. Tibbs is a shy newspaper reporter in danger of being fired because he writes only about cats. Then he meets Miss Minnie, formerly a cat but now a ginger-haired woman with more than a few feline mannerisms. When the journalist timidly offers her a place to stay (a large cardboard box in his storeroom), Miss Minnie responds by providing him with news for his stories, which she gathers from nightly forays into the neighborhood. Trouble begins when Mr. Tibbs pens an article accusing a prominent citizen of running down a local fish vendor. Since no human witness is willing to corroborate the story, Miss Minnie and her feline friends orchestrate a campaign to force the villain to reveal his true character. This gentle fantasy, first published in 1970 in the Netherlands, has not suffered from either time or translation. Children will smile as Minnie, pursued by a dog, scrambles up a tree; laugh as she tries to control her instinct to devour some aquarium goldfish; and sympathize as she tries to decide whether to become fully human or revert to her previous form. A great choice to read aloud or read alone, this is sure to please both cat lovers and adventure fans. Kay Weisman