The Nine Lives of the Cat

A long time ago, a cat as black as a moonless night emerged from a magical forest and lived nine memorable lives. In one life, he is called Bottom-Pit after being rescued from the bottom of a well. In another, he joins a marauding gang of cat bandits. The Cat spends another life with an old witch who wants to use his tail in one of her magic potions. During his life at the village inn, the Cat entertains dinner guests by dancing on tabletops. He spends his next life with a writer, retelling these amazing adventures until one day the Cat is crowned king and escapes into the forest to begin his last life. What will happen during the Cat's ninth and final life as king?

Gr. 3-5. In this unusual French import, cats inhabit an alternate but parallel universe. A cat, black as "a moonless night" with a snowflake patch of white on his chest, first appears in the dead of winter. Readers follow its lives--with the Toad-Witch, with the monks, in a tavern--in dramatic art and a text that is sometimes confusing. The oversize pictures have a wonderful opalescent glow to them, of snow or sunlight or flame, which sets off the inky fur of the multilived protagonist. The sophisticated art is matched by the often sly commentary ("Writers are all liars! All of them! Just like cats!") that will best be appreciated by an audience older than the picture-book set. The cat's nine lives are recapitulated at the end. For larger libraries, and perhaps most useful as an art book. GraceAnne DeCandido
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