This is a classic children's book - first published in 1928. I faintly remember hearing it read to me as a young child. The nonsensical book manages to convey real-life issues in the form of the human need for companionship and the difficulty of decision-making, while in my own memories a more frightening and disturbing theme stands out: SURVIVAL.
Following a recent re-read of the book the reason for this "fright" became apparent. The story begins with a sad, lonely, "very old" couple. The ink pen illustrations sprawl across the pages and highlight the despair of the couple: their home sad little cobblestone cottage perched on a baron hill, their lonesome expressions... Then EUREKA, the reader is amazed when the old man journeys out to find a companion and then "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats" appear over the hill. The man marches the trillions of cats home to his wife after he is unable to choose just one (each cat he sees is just as beautiful as the last). Of course all of the cats cannot be cared for - so the unthinkable happens - while the very old couple is deciding what to do, the cats all fight to the death.
The exact line that remains so disturbing to me, is uttered by the old woman, “I think they must have eaten each other all up... It's too bad!” (I must say that there is no gore or evidence of this battle occurring in the illustrations)
In the end the only cat that survived was the smallest, "homely cat" - it was not a threat to the other more beautiful cats - so this is the cat the couple kept and it became the most beautiful cat ever!
The absurd humor of the story is fun for an audience of young elementary students but on the other hand, I can definitely see how this book may be viewed by some as inappropriate or at least "controversial" for children in today's schools.
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