By Paula L. Silici
As a child born with a crossed left eye, I got lots of
teasing at school. To cheer me up before surgery corrected the condition, my
librarian Aunt Helen gave me a gift: a copy of Millions of Cats, written and
illustrated by Wanda Ga’g.
The tale is about a little old man and a little old woman
who long for a pet cat to remedy their loneliness. When the little old man sets
out over hill and dale to search for the “perfect” cat, he finds
Cats here, cats there,
cats and kittens everywhere,
Hundreds of cats,
Thousands of cats,
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.”
But which one to choose? Unable to decide, he leads them all
home to the little old woman and then asks the cats to choose from among
themselves which is the prettiest.
Thus begins a ferocious battle, which only one scrawny,
homely little kitten survives. With love and nurturing, the misshapen
kitten—too timid and self-deprecating to have participated in the battle—grows
up to become “the most beautiful cat in the whole world.”
While Paula, the little girl with the crossed eyes,
never quite made it all the way to beautiful, she did okay for herself—like the
homely kitten in the story. And, as an adult, she gifts this obscure but
treasured children’s classic to hurting little ones every chance she gets.
(thank you, Paula!)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário