7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sunday Times, London; 22 July, 2001, September 4, 2001
By A Customer
CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
Nicola Bayley's picturebook The Mousehole Cat won an array of prizes, and became a popular film and video. Now she has a new cat star, Katje, who lives with a miller in a Dutch village in the 15th century. This handsome picturebook, lovingly produced, is based on the true story of a baby and a cat who survived a flood in 1421.
Bayley's pictures are characteristically painstaking and gentle, softly lit, finely worked, and pretty. The setting has the feeling of a fairy tale, though it is carefully historical, and Bayley makes use of an appropriate margin of blue-and-white Dutch tiles, which pick up details of the story.
Although the tale and the illustrations are particular in place and time (with a historical note of the real facts and locations), the book has a wide appeal, because it is romantic and adventurous, and because the subtly understated text concerns friendship, parents' love for a child, and the mixture of protectiveness and rivalry that siblings feel towards each other. Cat-lovers will delight too in Bayley's ability to capture the feline.
Katje feels usurped when her owner brings home a new bride, who shoos the cat out when she is sweeping, for fear of floury pawprints. But the cat is delighted with the new baby when it arrives. Although she is discouraged from getting close, she plays with the baby when nobody is looking. One day, a storm causes a break in the dike, and the baby and cat are swept away in a cradle. Katje keeps the infant safe until they are rescued, and nobody ever shoos her away again.
Full of atmosphere and tenderness, this is a book that should make children smile. One to treasure.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beatifully written and illustrated, January 17, 2002
Since my parents are from Holland, I was thrilled to find a book that relates to my heritage. The book is beautiful, filled with moving illustrations, adorned with little Delft blue tiles. My son (age 4) loves the story, and we always hold our breath as the little cat saves the baby's life. That it is based on a Dutch legend only adds more to the story. And there is a gentle thread of humor woven through the story, as well.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story with great appeal for children and cat lovers, May 27, 2002
Gretchen Woelfle's "Katje the Windmill Cat" will have great appeal for children and cat lovers alike. The true tale of a brave cat which ended up saving a baby during a 15th-century flood in southern Holland, "Katje the Windmill Cat" begins quietly enough with Katje and her owner, Nico, enjoying the solitude of windmill life together. They play together, eat together, and even cozy up together at night. Both are content.
Then Nico brings home a bride, and soon enough, there is a baby girl named Anneke. Although Katje feels a little pushed aside, she does her best to amuse and take care of the baby. Her efforts are not always appreciated by Lena, Nico's wife, but all is forgiven when, at the end, Katje saves the day and Anneke alike.
Nicola Bayley's superb, softly colored illustrations greatly enhance the text. Pictures of the cat and her family subtly boost the story, as do the utterly charming Delft tile squares on each page--some depicting cats, some windmills, some dikes, and so on. This is a lovely story for almost any age, and the illustrations bring fresh visual rewards with each viewing (try finding the mice scattered throughout!).
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