people and places

Who says you can't go home again? Especially when home is a refuge of familiarity, comfort and love.

For many years a cat lived with an old woman in a stone house in France. Their house was by the sea so the cat well knew and loved the smell of salt air. At night the cat would curl in the woman's arms and she would pet him.

One day the woman died and all her belongings, along with the cat, were packed and shipped north to the place where she was born. However, there was no one to care for the cat. He wandered the streets meowing for food and running from predatory dogs.

Enough of this! He decided to go home. Could a cat possibly walk all the way across France to find the home for which he yearned?

Suggested for children ages 4 - 8 this is a touching story of perseverance and the comfort of home.

- Gail Cooke

"For many years the cat had lived in the stone house by the edge of the sea . . . He chased the wind that scuttled through the garden . . . At dusk he curled up in the bend of the old woman's arm" and she scratched his ears and stroked his back. "Good kitty," she tells him, "good kitty."

When the woman dies, her belongings, along with cat, are shipped north to her childhood home. With no one there to love him, the cat decides to leave. He roams the French countryside, sleeping in barns, hunting field mice, and dodging dogs and cars in bustling, big cities. His journey takes him past the Eiffel Tower, over bridges, around castles and ruins, through storms, and into occasional danger.

Time passes. "His fur grew scruffy. Now and again he would stop to linger on a grassy bank or in the cool shade of an ancient wall." Always though he pushed on, dreaming of the stone house by the edge of the sea.

"Thin and frail" the cat finally makes his way home. As he walks up to the door of the stone house, he finds it wide open. Soon he is curled into a small ball, asleep on a couch. When he awakens he finds a boy and girl standing over him. They offer him a platter of food, fresh water, and, satisfyingly, a home.

A map of France on the book's back cover shows the cat's zigzag journey from Rouen in the north to St. Tropez in the south.

Hallensleben's paintings are lushly textured with bold, big, colorful brush strokes.

Excellent as a read aloud.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff.