Little Cat's Luck
2.5/5
()
About this ebook
When an indoor calico cat named Patches spots a golden autumn leaf fluttering past her window, she can’t help but venture outside to chase it. But soon, Patches feels something tugging at her, telling her to find a special place—one she won’t know until she sees it. Why must she go on this search? She doesn’t know yet.
Along the way, Patches finds herself in dire circumstances, but with the help of the other neighborhood animals, she faces off against the scariest dog in town and continues on her journey to her special place.
Beautifully told in verse and accompanied by adorable illustrations by Jennifer A. Bell, this heartwarming novel from Newberry Honor–winner, Marion Dane Bauer, is a timeless, touching, and fulfilling story about finding your way home.
Marion Dane Bauer
Marion Dane Bauer has written more than one hundred children's books, including picture books, easy readers, early chapter books, and novels. She won a Newbery Honor for On My Honor, a middle grade coming-of-age story. She lives in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. www.mariondanebauer.com.
Read more from Marion Dane Bauer
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Reviews for Little Cat's Luck
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This delightful book tells the story of Patches the cat who longs for a special place. When the screen pops off the window, she finds a special place right in the home of the meanest dog in town, Gus. She's lost and doesn't know how to get home. Needless to say Patches gives birth to a litter of kittens right in Gus' doghouse. A bond between dog, cat, and kittens is made. There's more to the story, but I'll let you read it for yourself. The book is written as though it is poetry, but it's really prose disguised as poetry. The short lines should make it easier for more advanced younger readers to enjoy. It shows a 4.7 reading level with a 760L lexile. I suspect many third graders could enjoy it and perhaps even some advanced second graders. Many of the lines are shaped to go along with the text. Illustrations are sparse. It would make a good read aloud book. Marion Dane Bauer continues to be one of the better writers of children's books.
Book preview
Little Cat's Luck - Marion Dane Bauer
Little cat,
searching.
Little calico cat
searching for a place,
a special place
to be her very own.
What she would do with a special place
once she found it,
she wasn’t sure.
Perhaps she would just curl up for a good nap.
But if she didn’t know
what her special place was for,
she knew exactly
what it would be like.
Hidden away,
snug,
dark,
quiet . . .
very, very quiet.
The little cat,
whose name was Patches,
by the way,
had checked
every possible spot
in her
entire
house,
looking for her special place.
Corners,
closets,
cupboards.
Even the dusty space
behind the refrigerator
and the floor beneath the kitchen table
next to the chipped blue bowl
that held her kibble . . .
and occasionally a touch of tuna.
Nothing
was quite right.
Not the pillow
where she slept
next to her girl’s sweet breathing.
Too open.
Not the basement
where her man pounded nails
and whirled saws.
Too noisy.
Not the studio
where her woman
slathered paint.
Too smelly!
And so,
on the day our story begins,
Patches sat just inside the window
at the front of her house,
gazing out
at the wide wide world
and longing.
She licked a paw
and ran it over her ginger ear.
She washed her black ear next.
But just as she was starting on
her pretty white face,
something caught her eye.
Something golden.
Something
f
a
l
l
i
n
g.
The golden leaf
wafted
this way
and that
as though it meant
to go anywhere
but
down.
"Come catch me!
I dare you!"
it seemed to say.
The white tip of Patches’s patchy tail
twitched
and her eyes—
as golden as the leaf—
blazed.
"I want . . .
I want . . .
I want . . . ,"
she chirred.
And her wanting grew more fierce
with each saying of it.
So fierce that,
without thinking what she was doing,
she sprang
at the window screen
that stood between her
and
the
falling
leaf
and all the rest of the wide world.
To her astonishment
the screen gave way.
And Patches found herself standing
among the red berry bushes
that grew
around the base
of the house.
All this happened so fast
that the leaf
still floated in the air.
It twirled,
dipped,
drifted toward the grass,
and then . . .
just as Patches crouched,
ready to leap again,
another breeze tossed the leaf high.
She pounced and
missed.
The chase was on!
Across the lawn,
along the sidewalk,
down
the
middle
of
the
street,
Patches followed.
(Lucky there were no cars coming.)
She tiptoed
through more grass—
ew-w-w! prickly!—
then crossed a second street.
Still,
the
leaf
called.
(Or perhaps
by this time
she followed a different leaf,
still gold,
still calling.)
Just when Patches
got close enough
to pounce,
another gust came along,
and the golden leaf
up
and
sailed up
and disappeared
of
peak a
the red
over roof.
The little cat slowed,
stopped,
sat.
She licked her nose.
(In case you didn’t know,
that’s what cats do
when they’re upset.)
She wrapped her tail
around her haunches
and peered
over one shoulder.
Then the other.
But she could no longer
see the leaf
anywhere.
For that matter,
she could no longer
see her house
anywhere
either.
She was alone
under the blue bowl of the sky.
Now,
you might think a small cat,
a small house cat,
who has been petted and cuddled
and fed from a chipped blue bowl
her entire life,
would be frightened
to find herself alone
out in the BIG world.
But Patches hadn’t forgotten
the important search she was on.
She looked around and thought,
Look at all this space!
There must be hundreds
of special places out here.
Thousands.
Each one more hidden away,
snug,
dark,
quiet,
than the one before.
What luck
that the golden leaf had called her!
What luck
that the screen had released her!
What luck
that the whole blue-and-gold world
lay stretched out before her!
What excellent luck!
Some cats
are born to adventure.
They prowl their towns
night and day,
exploring shrubs,
alleys,
the Dumpster
behind the butcher’s shop.
They catch a mouse or two
and scatter
flock
a of
sparrows.
Then they have
a howling fight
and,
pleased with themselves—
and perhaps a bit bloody—
they pad on home
to ask
politely
for a bit of cream.
As you already know,
Patches was not
one of those cats.
The closest