I am lucky enough to share my home with three wonderful felines. Legolas is a big, fluffy, ginger tabby who is easy-going and easy to please. Sumalee and Sarafee are two very opinionated Siamese cats who are fussy, difficult, and demanding. They remind me a lot of the cat whose story is told in today's Poetry title. Won Ton is also a demanding fellow and he is determined to keep the humans in his life on their toes.
Won Ton: A Cat tale told in Haiku
Won Ton: A Cat tale told in Haiku
Lee Wardlaw
Illustrated by Eugene Yelchin
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Henry Holt, 2011, 978-0-8050-8995-0
In a shelter there is a cat. He is an elegant beast with
beautiful blue eyes. In his cage the cat has a bed, a bowl, and a blanket, and
he tells himself that what he has is “just like home.” Or least that is what he
has been told.
During visitor
hours the cat feigns a complete lack of interest in what is going on, though he
cannot resist a little peek. One person pinches him, and another pulls his tail,
but then a boy comes along and he knows how to rub the cat’s chin just right.
The cat tries to seem unconcerned. He grooms himself assiduously and does his
best to appear as if there is “No rush.” In actual fact the cat is thinking, and
hoping “Please, Boy, pick me.”
Sure enough Boy
does choose him and the cat is taken out of his cage. He is thrilled to be
free, but at the same time afraid of what awaits him out there in the world.
Briefly he “clings to what is known.”
After a trip in
a car, the cat arrives in his new home, and the process of naming him begins.
He believes that he deserves a name fitting for an “Oriental Prince.” He ends up
being called Won Ton, and he is not impressed.
This wonderful
tale, which is told using a series of haiku poems, is funny, sweet, and
sometimes touched with just a little uncertainty and anxiety. It is a story
about new beginnings that readers of all ages will be able to connect with.
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