The Cats of Roxville Station - Softcover

George, Jean Craighead

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142415669 ISBN 13: 9780142415665

Publisher: Puffin Books, 2010

Synopsis

Rachet the cat was cruelly thrown in a river to drown, but she escapes and finds a home with the feral cats living by the Roxville train station. As Rachet learns to live with the cats and other animals, Mike, a local foster child, spots her and decides to befriend her. But Mike must learn to "speak" the language of cats to gain Rachet's trust.

This gorgeous novel from celebrated author Jean Craighead George offers insight into feline behavior as it explores the wonder of friendship and the natural world hiding among us.

About this title

About the Author:

"I write for children. Children are still in love with the wonders of nature, and I am too. So I tell them stories about a boy and a falcon, a girl and an elegant wolf pack, about owls, weasels, foxes, prairie dogs, the alpine tundra, the tropical rain forest. And when the telling is done, I hope they will want to protect all the beautiful creatures and places."

Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written over 100 books.

Her book, Julie of the Wolves won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, l973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.

She attended Penn State University graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.

When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home and to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists and Twig writes children's books, too.

One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack.

She is still traveling and coming home to write. In the last decade she has added two beautiful new dimensions to her words beautiful full-color picture book art by Wendell Minor and others and - music. Jean is collaborating with award-winning composer, Chris Kubie to bring the sounds of nature to her words.

From Booklist:

George, whose writings have taken readers many places in the natural world, now brings them a story set close to home: a New York train station, the gathering spot of a group of feral cats. Ratchet, an orange-and-white cat, is dumped on the road. Suddenly on her own, she must adapt to the life of an outdoor cat, foraging for food, finding a place to live, avoiding predators, and adjusting to the feral-cat hierarchy. There’s a boy, too, Mike, who wants to bring her home; unfortunately, his foster mother hates cats. Without anthropomorphism, yet personalizing her characters, George follows Ratchet as she leaves kittenhood and becomes the savvy feline who can watch out for herself as well as her eventual kittens. Simply and directly, George weaves the whys and wherefores of cats’ lives (as well as those of other animals) into a smooth narrative. The adult characters are sometimes overdrawn, especially Mike’s unpleasant foster mother, but with the felines in the forefront, they’re easily ignored. This is a book kids will both enjoy and learn from. Grades 4-6. --Ilene Cooper

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0142415669
• ISBN 13: 9780142415665
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176