The Hotel Cat (New York Review Children's Collection) [Hardcover]

Esther Averill (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2005 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: New York Review Children's Collection

One wintry day a lonely stray cat wandered into the Royal Hotel. He chased mice so well that he was given the job of Hotel Cat. Tired of always spending time in the cellar Tom ventured upstairs and met the gentle Mrs. Wilkins, a longtime hotel resident who had the ability to communicate with cats. She encouraged Tom to keep an open mind about the hotel guests.

One night, during the winter of New York City's Big Freeze, Tom detected three cats in one of the rooms. It turned out that due to a boiler breakdown in his house, Captain Tinker had brought Jenny Linsky and her brothers Edward and Checkers to stay at the hotel until the boiler was fixed. Other homes experienced boiler breakdowns too and soon other members of the Cat Club could be found staying in rooms at the Royal Hotel. Before long, plans were underway for the Cat Club Stardust Ball, with the help of Tom, who had proved himself helpful and considerate after all. Soon he became a "friend for ever" of Jenny and her pals.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Esther Averill (1902–1992) began her career as a storyteller drawing cartoons for her local newspaper. After graduating from Vassar College in 1923, she moved first to New York City and then to Paris, where she founded her own publishing company. The Domino Press introduced American readers to artists from all over the world. In 1941, Esther Averill returned to the United States and found a job in the New York Public Library while continuing her work as a publisher. She wrote her first book about the red-scarfed, mild-mannered cat Jenny Linsky in 1944, modeling its heroine on her own shy cat. Esther Averill would eventually write twelve more tales about Miss Linsky and her friends including the I Can Read Book, The Fire Cat, each of which was eagerly awaited by children all over the United States (and their parents, too).

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: NYR Children's Collection (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590171594
• ISBN-13: 978-1590171592
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.7 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A favorite read-aloud for five year olds, December 1, 2003

By 

Elisheva S. Urbas (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hotel Cat (Paperback)

This book is right up there with My Father's Dragon as wonderful first real novels to read aloud to young children. It is lyrical and full of emotion, without having anything in it that might be frightening to a young child. The issues that Tom, the Hotel Cat, faces, are some of the big ones for five year olds. He is young, in a world that is old, and he hopes to find some valuable place for himself in that old intimidating world; and he longs to make friends, in a social sphere where everybody else, as far as he can tell, are all members already of the same Club. His joy at knowing that behind the door or Room 811 are new friends, who have not forgotten him and look forward to talking with him as eagerly as he with them, has stayed with every one of my children as passionately as it stayed with me 35 years ago. Sadly, it is doing so with the very same worn edition, since The Hotel Cat is long out of print. I hope the New York Review will be inspired by what I trust will be the success of their reissue of The Cat Club to put this back into the market as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Read, May 11, 2005

By 

Anna (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hotel Cat (Paperback)

The other day I came across a copy of "Jenny and the Cat Club" at a bookstore and was overcome by memories of the hours I spent with the Cat Club as a child. "The Hotel Cat" was the first of my experiences with the Cat Club, and has always remained my favorite. For several years in grade school I would check it out over and over at the library to have the pleasure of reading it again and again. At one point I became convinced that my own three cats had a secret club with the other neighborhood felines! Eventually of course I moved on to longer and more difficult reads, but I never forgot Tom and the other Cat Club members. Sadly, when I looked for "The Hotel Cat" at the library a few years ago I discovered that it and the other Cat Club books had been sold or donated due to a low check out rate. Since then, I have been looking for my own copy of Cat Club books. Now that they are being republished, I absolutely plan to buy a copy of each so that I can pass these wonderful books that meant so much to me on to my own children some day.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time childhood favorites, June 30, 2004

By 

Laura J Lockhart (Mount Laurel, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hotel Cat (Paperback)

I'm hoping that The Hotel Cat will soon join the other Cat Club reissues. Somewhere over the years I lost my original copy and recently replaced it with a used one I came across on EBay, but I'd love a new copy that would hold up long enough for my children to pass on to their children. If I read this book once I read it a thousand times, and I'll never forget the fifth-grade book report I wrote---or the crude mobile I created for which my mother helped me knit a little red scarf for Jenny! The illustrations and the story captivated me, transported me to a place I could only imagine, and inspired me to ask my parents all kinds of bizarre questions that they probably never could have expected---like what's a hornpipe dance and why is it called that?! A real treasure.