Customer Reviews

It's Like This, Cat (Fly High with Novel Units) (Teacher Guide)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Emily Neville's Newbery Medal winning book, It's Like This, Cat, explores the life of a young and curious boy from New York City. Dave Mitchell, age fourteen, is an only child who doesn't seem to get along with his father, who is constantly lecturing his choice of music and friends. To make matters worse, Dave's mother has asthma attacks every time the two boys fight. It seems that the only person Dave can confide in is his neighbor, the crazy cat lady, the neighborhood creep. He calls her Aunt Kate. It is Aunt Kate who introduces Dave to his new best friend, Cat, a stray tomcat whom Aunt Kate picked up off the streets. Cat accompanies Dave everywhere, from adventures to Central Park with Dave's buddy Nick to visiting Dave's older acquaintance, Tom, at Coney Island. It is Cat who introduces Dave to his girl crush, Mary, and the suspected criminal, Tom.

Neville uses detailed characterization to tie the story together brilliantly. Each character is convincing, behaving appropriately for his or her age. For example, Dave is unmistakably a city boy, having no problem reading maps of the city, taking the bus to restaurants and coke shops, walking down 42nd street to play ball with the boys, taking a ferry to the zoo in Brooklyn, and riding his bike to visit friends. Dave is also a typical fourteen-year-old boy, craving his independence from his parents, working for money to call his own, seeking daily adventures in the outdoors, and suddenly becoming interested in one of the opposite sex. It is through thoughtful plot and character development that Neville is able to end the story with the reader recognizing what impact that people, and even animals, can have on each other's lives.

Apparent personal values to reading It's Like This, Cat are vicarious experience and universality of experience. The reader is able to see life in the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy living in New York City; a boy who lives in a time when a Coke is no more than 15 cents; a boy who will do just about anything to save his cat named Cat. Through carefully chosen words printed on paper, the reader is able to experience a different world. However, the reader, whether male or female, whether 14 or 64, or whether having grown up in the city or country, is able to relate to Dave Mitchell in some way. Like Dave, we all experience gaining and losing friendships, having arguments with our parents, and overall, the adventures of growing up. Neville's ability to express the language of a young boy in relation to that of our own is partly why It's Like This, Cat is deserving of the Newbery Medal.

Its Like This, Cat By Emily Neville is a Suspenseful story about a boy and his cat admidst the busy 1964, New York background. It all started when Dave Mitchell came home with an orange and black striped tomcat. This book is all about a boy's childhood as he grows up with his pet cat. Dave has adventures all over New York and also some close to his downtown apartment. Dave also does not have the best relationship with his dad either. Fights are always brewing between Dave and his father. So, Dave is almost always away from home to get away from his father.

I gave Its LIke this Cat five stars. I feel it deserved 5 stars because when I read this book I felt like I was in New York in 1964. With Emily Neville's Photographic detail I could easily point a clear, vivid picture in my head. This book also has many humerous spots that makes you want to keep reading. Since this cook was written in 1964 it does not have the most appealing cover. But like they always say "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Michael
Madison, WI

This was one of the first books I remember choosing, myself, to read when I was about 8 years old. It's a very sweet story, but also has a good amount of serious reality to it. I'm from the suburbs of NYC and I loved cats as a child, so this book was a perfect fit. This book is an excellent way to get kids around that age to develop their love of reading -- and their desire to sometimes choose books over video games and TV. If your child likes this, also try "A Cricket in Times Square".

I have to tell you, I originally had to read this as a school requirement in the late 1970's. Since then this book has left such a positive impression and I consistently recommend this to the young adults who express an interest in reading. I am waiting until my children are a few years older to introduce them to the story. The characters are wonderful and it is easy to relate to them. The story moves well as we follow Dave through a year of his life and experience his maturing, somehow influenced by Cat. You can clearly see why this won the Newbery

Neville, Emily. It's Like This, Cat. Illus. Emily Weiss. New York: Harper and Row. 1963. Markman, Lisa Hermine. "Child's Work Is Child's Play: The Value of George MacDonald's Diamond." Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 24.3 (1999)119-129.

Dave is the main character of the book, It's Like This, Cat. He gets a cat from his friend Aunt Kate. He quickly names his new pet "Cat." Throughout the story, Cat helps take a part in Dave's new found relationships with friends and family. Dave and Cat go on new adventures together and meet interesting people. This Newbery Medal winner was really fun to read. The descriptions of the cats are the best that I have seen in a children's book. In, It's Like This, Cat, Neville successfully awakens the reader's visual senses. The description of fine details of cat places the reader inside the book and allows him or her to visualize the vivid images on each page. Neville captures the sleek movements of the cats in this book, from the twitch of the tail to the lazy play of the eyes. For cat lovers, it is a joy to see how these fury friends are captured in their playful and lazy manners. With this description, Neville creates a fascinating world that is easy for the reader to enter. Once inside, the reader is also able to get an up-close view of the special bond between Dave and Cat. Cat soon becomes Dave's best friend and they begin to do everything together. With the visual senses awakened, one can feel that they are seeing inside the story, and capture a deeper meaning than one would have if the images were not so life-like. These life-like images make this novel hard to put down. One thing that I feel that Neville really captures in this book is the real innocence of child's play. In the article, "Child's Work is Child's Play: The Value of George MacDonald's Diamond," Makman states that shortly before the time period that this book was written, "...the idea of an economically worthless but emotionally priceless child emerged. A carefree, labor-free childhood came to be understood as a fundamental right of all children regardless of their social class; simultaneously, childhood became an increasingly popular locus for fantasies about leisure and freedom from adults" (119).

The reader gets a sense of this carefree, labor-free child in Neville's work. She depicts Dave as worry free child who is free to explore the world with his favorite toy of all, his cat. Dave does not have to deal with the struggle of a job but instead has supportive parents and a warm home where he is nurtured and loved. The structure and description take the reader on a great adventure with funny surprises, and a happy ending. I would recommend this book to any age reader who is looking to escape life's troubles and enjoy the adventures of a boy and his cat.

This book isn't perfect, but that's what makes it special. You see, when I saw the stupid title and the stupid picture on the cover, it made me want to read anything but that book. But I ended up reading it anyway, and to my surprise, I loved it! It is simple and realistic, and myself being 13, I could relate to it. The dialogue is that of a teenager, and Dave's (the main character) thoughts were ones I could understand. Finally, a book that isn't set in some far off land with strange and wonderful characters... it's a book about life.

IT'S LIKE THIS CAT is an energetic, enthralling book about Dave growing up in the New York city of the 1960's. The book has a strong energetic prose and is pleasurable to read not just for Dave's coming of age story but for the wonderful sense of place and time that Neville imbues each line with. The chapters with Dave and his girlfriend are especially pleasurable.

I love this book and have loved it for many years. A wonderful, wonderful book that speaks to all ages, for all ages!!!

I'm 35 now, and I read this years ago as a teenager, and it's stuck with me through the years more than almost any book I've read. It captures the sights and sounds of 1964 New York in amazing technicolor, as well as the sentimentality of young love. There's a sentence at the end of the book, when something good has happened to the boy regarding the girl,that, to this day reverberates in my mind when a date works out or the like. Love the book.

IT'S NOTHING SHORT OF A CLASSIC. Personally, I find this book a better study in early 60s NYC youth alienation and reconciliation than Catcher in the Rye, and that is no joke. This book is fabulous. (...)

It was cool. This is probably the best book I ever read. One reason I liked this book is that I like cats. My favorite part was when Dave goes over to Kate's house and notices that a cat is hissing at a mother with kittens. Dave asks Kate to take him home, and although she is slow in letting him have Cat, she finally agrees.

This book is better than most books and Cat doesn't die like the many animal characters in others books. I recommend that you read this book!