The Boy Who Drew Cats - Hardcover

Hodges, Margaret

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823415945 ISBN 13: 9780823415946

Publisher: Holiday House, 2002

Synopsis

A young boy's obsession with drawing cats sometimes got him in trouble, but one day the cats found a way to reward their skillful creator.

About this title

About the Author:

Margaret "'Peggy"' Hodges (July 26, 1911–December 13, 2005) was a Caldecott Award-winning American writer of books for children. She was born Sarah Margaret Moore in Indianapolis, Indiana to Arthur Carlisle and Annie Marie Moore. She enrolled at Tudor Hall, a college preparatory school for girls. A 1932 graduate of Vassar College, she arrived in Pittsburgh with her husband Fletcher Hodges Jr. when in 1937 he became curator at the Stephen Foster Memorial. She trained as a librarian at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, under Elizabeth Nesbitt, and she volunteered as a storyteller at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1958 with One Little Drum, she wrote and published more than 40 books. In the 1960s she did a storytelling segment for Fred Rogers' children's television show at WQED. Her 1985 book Saint George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, won the Caldecott Medal of the American Library Association. What's for Lunch, Charley? and Merlin and the Making of the King are two of her other well-known works. She was a professor of library science at the University of Pittsburgh, where she retired in 1976. Hodges died of heart disease December 13, 2005 at her home in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. She suffered from Parkinson's disease. She wrote her stories on a notepad or a typewriter. "'I need good ideas, and they don't come out of machines,"' she once said.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3--In old Japan, a clever, frail peasant boy training for the priesthood cannot resist drawing cats on every available surface. When his exasperated teacher sends him away, he takes shelter in an abandoned temple late at night, not knowing that a murderous goblin haunts the place. After drawing cats all over the dusty walls, the boy crawls inside a small cabinet to sleep. Terrible noises disturb him during the night. When morning comes, he finds an enormous rat lying dead on the floor, and fresh blood on the mouths of the cats he painted. This story was first told in English more than 100 years ago by Lafcadio Hearn. Drawing on traditional stories about a picture that comes to life, Hearn fleshed out a short fable about Sesshu Toyo, a famous Zen painter from the 15th century. Hodges has lightly but judiciously pruned Hearn's text, retaining his rhythm and easy grace. Sogabe's cut-paper, watercolor, and airbrush illustrations resonate with the spirit of Japanese woodcuts, and are distinguished by striking composition and harmonious, muted colors. Her picture of the dead goblin is dramatic yet restrained, showing only the boy's appalled face and the rat's large tail. Hodges's direct, clear adaptation stays closer to its source than David Johnson's highly embellished retelling of the same title (Rabbit Ears, 1991, o.p.). She also provides a model source note. This shivery page-turner celebrating the power of art belongs in most libraries.
Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0823415945
• ISBN 13: 9780823415946
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Sogabe Aki