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Summary
Summary
The award-winning team of Ursula K. Le Guin and S. D. Schindler brilliantly portrays a cat that searches for a great place to take a nap and then begins to dream. Cat Dreams is a great read-aloud picture book full of catlike imagery as only Le Guin and Schindler could create.
Author Notes
Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California on October 21, 1929. She received a bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College in 1951 and a master's degree in romance literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance from Columbia University in 1952. She won a Fulbright fellowship in 1953 to study in Paris, where she met and married Charles Le Guin.
Her first science-fiction novel, Rocannon's World, was published in 1966. Her other books included the Earthsea series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, The Lathe of Heaven, Four Ways to Forgiveness, and The Telling. A Wizard of Earthsea received an American Library Association Notable Book citation, a Horn Book Honor List citation, and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1979. She received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014. She also received the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. She also wrote books of poetry, short stories collections, collections of essays, children's books, a guide for writers, and volumes of translation including the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu and selected poems by Gabriela Mistral. She died on January 22, 2018 at the age of 88.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-The team that created the "Catwings" series (Scholastic) has collaborated on this pleasing meditation. Both the story and text are simple: a cat's dreams are filled with kibble and cream, scaring away dogs, and climbing catnip trees. But when the dream turns nightmarish by a flock of squawking blue jays, the reality of a warm lap nearby is even better. Cat Dreams offers a satisfying read for cat lovers who can enjoy the tranquil illustrations, rendered in watercolor and gouache. Many of the elements of the animal's dream-a day when it rains mice, sleeping in a blue jay's nest--are revealed in the squares of the quilt on which the feline lies with such cozy charm (observant readers should also look out for a few catwings flying by). But the highlight of the book is the reinforcement of the conceit that humans somehow enrich a cat's life. The rhyming text is concise and easy enough for emerging readers. Pair this with Sue Stainton's I Love Cats (HarperCollins, 2007) for a cat-themed quiet time.-Kara Schaff Dean, Walpole Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Short, nearly telegraphic verse by Le Guin (who collaborated with Schindler on the Catwings series) conjures up the inner life of a tortoiseshell cat, whose time, when not hunting or planning naps, is devoted to dreaming: "Oh, how nice! It's raining mice!" Schindler offers a series of crisp-edged, meticulous paintings that portray the cat's most extravagant fantasies in penetrating yet serene detail. "Oh, happy day! All the dogs have run away!" says the dreaming cat, towing a kind of wooden Trojan Cat whose roaring face makes the neighborhood canines flee. A fountain of cream with an Italianate cat sculpture in the center attracts a dozen lapping cats and a catnip tree beguiles ("I'm going to stop/ and have a rest/ in a blue jay's nest"), while the text curves up and down on the pages, mimicking both the activity of the cat's imagination and its leaps, bounds and other movements. Le Guin, supplying only the suggestions of cat dreams, leaves the filling out of the magic visions to Schindler, whose splendid spreads compel close inspection. Ages 3-5. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved