Customer Reviews

King of the Cats

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those luminous yellow eyes watching me, that's what I remember most clearly about this fascinating dark little tale. I checked out The King of the Cats from the public library when I was eight years old and staying with my grandmother. I've never forgotten it. An old man walking home through the louisiana bayou night sees a ghostly funeral procession of cats comes home to his tarpaper shack and tells his old wife about it. Watch their big tomcat's eyes as he tells the story. In these days of the blatant scary fiction of R.L Stine and Goosebumps The King of the Cats is subtle, beautiful, and foreboding in a sort of mesmerizing way that is truly uncommon in children's literature. I don't know if it is, but is has the feel of an old oral folk tale, worn smooth to its most basic elements by years of telling. At eight, I loved it, at twenty four, I still love it.

This book has been haunting me ever since I read it to my sons over 20 plus years ago. I checked it out of the Murphy, NC Public Library and we enjoyed it for a week. I lost track of the author but have never forgotten this haunting tale. Occasionally I would check on library books shelves but never came across it. My sons are now 26 and 30 respectively with no grandchildren on the horizon so I wasn't trying too hard. But once again I decided to try to find this book and ended up buying a version by Aaron Shepard here on amazon. When I received it I knew it wasn't the book I was hoping for. But FINALLY I have tracked down the Paul Galdone version and I can't wait until it arrives! I even have a gray cat named Tom Tildrum, he's King O' the Cats!