[.ca] The Cat Who Liked Potato Soup (ISBN 0763608343)

But the cat came back the very next day...:
Not, as you may have guessed, a book in the famous "The Cat Who" series by Lillian Jackson Braun. Instead, this is a simple tale of a man and his cat. Stories of this ilk are nine times out of ten relegated to the dogs of the world. We can find a million "a man and his dog" books out there, so it is that much more impressive when the companion of the tale is a little more feline. Author Terry Farish, previously disposed to writing books for young adults, and the remarkable Barry Root have teamed together to bring us a story of good old-fashioned friendship and bonding. The book begins, "There was an old man, an ol' Texas boy, country-raised, don't you know". He lives alone with his cat, to whom he is very attached, "but not so's you'd notice". Man and cat live a nice peaceful life. When the man goes out to fish, the cat sits on the prow of the boat, though she never catches anything. Truthfully, she's never caught a thing in her whole life, a fact that the man brings up regularly. But they share bowls of potato soup together and are quite contented with their lot. You get the distinct feeling that the man is retired and that this is how he prefers to spend his days. One day, the man finds that the cat is still sleeping when he's ready to go fishing. Not one to wait too long, he leaves without her, reasoning that he doesn't need her. When the cat wakes to find the man gone (a thing that has never occurred before) she leaves home. The man comes back to an empty home and for three days the cat does not return. One day he comes home and there's the cat on the porch, one paw on the biggest fish you ever did see. The cat howls her story, which the man picks up on pretty well, and at long last the two are back in the goods. "And he loved the sight of her, oh, and this time you'd notice". And in time the cat forgives the man and, "then came sweet peace". There's a tone to the dialogue and text of this book that's as easy and pleasant on the ear as you could hope for in a picture book. The man, for his part, is the type to mutter words like, "Fool cat. You ain't nobody's prize. Never killed nothin'". These two could be living anywhere in the continental United States, honestly. The man's grouchy, but he's never downright mean, and the cat matches him in spirit, sticking up for herself when she needs to. Alone, the book's a great read. Paired with Root's illustrations, it's a dream come true. Barry Root has somehow captured the feel and tone of this story perfectly. From the man's small ramshackle little house (note the toilet bowl under the mailbox that reads, "Junk mail") to that baseball cap the man always wears, to the truck he drives. Heck, I even liked box of Kleenex that sits forlornly on the man's dining room table. If I have any problems with the pictures in this book, perhaps Roots didn't make the man as curmudgeonly looking as he is in the text. But this is a minor/ tiny/ petty/ miniscule complaint. The book's a fantastic looking piece of work. Though you never learn the name of either the man or the cat, you don't need to. They stand on their own well enough. And this isn't a book about some grand rich person or even a person who works in a professional manner. This is about a guy who'd like nothing better than to live on his own with his cat and to go fishing every day. Remarkably, it makes fantastic reading for the young ones. The best way to tell if you're going to like this book or not is to just take a gander at the cover. Blow it up big so that you can get a good long look at it. If the shot of that cat (her mouth smiling and the man in the back of the boat) doesn't appeal to you then you probably won't enjoy this book. But if you like cats or men or just honest straightforward storytelling, then this is the book for you. It does not aim beyond its station, but it's a strong well-told tale that you could read again and again and get a little more out of every time. I wish that all picture books could do half as much.

A tale that will please people of all ages:
This is a gentle, sweet tale that children will enjoy and parents will enjoy reading to them. The ending is satisfying and the kids will have to think about the relationship between the man and the cat. The illustrations are large and because of this, it makes this a good book to read to a large group of children.

A UNIQUE, RICH TALE:
This endearing story about an old man and his almost equally aged cat is a reminder of the bond between humans and their animals. Now, these two, the cat and the man, got along well because both were a tad crotchety. The man sometimes lost patience with the cat because as he said, "You never killed nothin'" - not a bird, not a mouse, absolutely nothing. What the cat did like was the man's potato soup, so the man reluctantly shared it. These two did almost everything together; they even went fishing with the cat sitting in the prow of the boat looking very much like a hood ornament. Evidently, the cat loved to do that as she poked her face into the wind and seemed quite happy out on the water. Problems arose one day when the man was already to go fishing and the cat was still asleep. So, as mentioned, he was a bit of a grump, and he decided to go without her. What was the cat supposed to do when she awoke to an empty house? As always, Barry Root's lovely watercolor illustrations add richness to this tale of a unique, deeply felt love. - Gail Cooke