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susie_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
libroscaramelle's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
Awesome children’s book about a little black cat who is learning to be courageous. I love this series and I think these would be great in my classroom library.
ashleylm's review against another edition
3.0
Sweet, but innocuous, and short. It reminded me of the kind of semi-rambling story one might make up for one's kids on the spur of the moment, when stuck on a train with no book, say. I can imagine someone recommending it for a shy child who is bullied at school, say, and I can also imagine it not helping in the slightest. The illustrations are a kind of naive primitive style by the author and have more charm than the tale itself.
So not horrible, but I'm a bit surprised it became so beloved as to spawn several sequels (this is itself a follow-up to the first one, The Cat Club), let alone be reissued years later, alone the tone is very much in keeping with the clean, spare, charming, erudite style espoused by the New York Review Children's Collection curators.
Oh, and I've never seen a stained glass window in a church which opened. Never. So that struck a discordant tone. I can accept schools for cats, but not churches popping over their stained glass windows to let a little breeze in!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
So not horrible, but I'm a bit surprised it became so beloved as to spawn several sequels (this is itself a follow-up to the first one, The Cat Club), let alone be reissued years later, alone the tone is very much in keeping with the clean, spare, charming, erudite style espoused by the New York Review Children's Collection curators.
Oh, and I've never seen a stained glass window in a church which opened. Never. So that struck a discordant tone. I can accept schools for cats, but not churches popping over their stained glass windows to let a little breeze in!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
corncobwebs's review against another edition
I read this one on the day I found out that Elliott Rodger killed a bunch of college students in California. Like a dum dum, I watched the video he made of himself talking about his murder plans and the reasons behind them. It kind of destroyed me, so the only thing I could think to do was read the cheeriest book out of my collection of children's books. While I remained disturbed for days, this book helped lift my spirits that evening. It's about a little black cat named Jenny Linsky (!) whose owner sends her to a school for cats for the summer. She's very apprehensive, and apprehension turns to fear when a jerky little guy named Pickles keeps chasing her on his toy fire engine. She runs away, but a chance encounter with two charming good-time cats convinces her to give school a second try. Pickles is still an jerk, but Jenny learns that there's also lots of fun to be had at school. The writing isn't great, but it has an old-timey lilt to it, and that gives it charm. The best part of the book is the illustrations, which are so adorable I can hardly stand it. This book definitely deserves to be a classic, and I'm going to do my best to keep putting it in the hands of kids and caregivers! Long live Jenny - thanks for cheering me up when the world seemed unspeakably depressing.
pussreboots's review against another edition
4.0
The School for Cats by Esther Averill is one of the Jenny's Cat Club books. I've been trying to read the series on and off since reading The Hotel Cat. The stories seem to be at all different reading levels and they've gone out of print and come back into print, making them all the more difficult to sort out and read.
In this one, Jenny, the adorable black cat with the fetching red scarf, is heading to cat school for the summer. The set up reminds me of the times I've taken Caligula cat to "cat camp" for boarding while I visited my family. In Averill's world, though, cats are self sufficient enough to get there on their own. Pickles, the fire cat, for example, drives his miniature fire engine to the school!
Pickles's over abundance of energy and Jenny's natural timidity makes for a volatile combination. Poor Jenny ends up with the scare of her life but she learns from her experience and grows in the process. While Jenny runs off, I couldn't help but be reminded of Jane, the youngest of the Ursula Le Guin Catwings cats, especially in Jane on Her Own. Jenny, though, I like better.
Recommended by Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Love
In this one, Jenny, the adorable black cat with the fetching red scarf, is heading to cat school for the summer. The set up reminds me of the times I've taken Caligula cat to "cat camp" for boarding while I visited my family. In Averill's world, though, cats are self sufficient enough to get there on their own. Pickles, the fire cat, for example, drives his miniature fire engine to the school!
Pickles's over abundance of energy and Jenny's natural timidity makes for a volatile combination. Poor Jenny ends up with the scare of her life but she learns from her experience and grows in the process. While Jenny runs off, I couldn't help but be reminded of Jane, the youngest of the Ursula Le Guin Catwings cats, especially in Jane on Her Own. Jenny, though, I like better.
Recommended by Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Love
scaifea's review
3.0
A weird (but not necessarily in a bad way) little book about a cat who goes to a cat school while her owner is on vacation and gets bullied by another, bigger cat.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
5.0
Did you know there was once a Boarding School for Cats? If you were a cat, would you want to go there?
Some who went there were like Pickles, sent by his master to learn manners. Pickles who thrived at the boarding school by running over innocent cats with his hook-and-ladder truck.
Others were sent there like Jenny. She was sent to the boarding school while her master was sailing at sea. Jenny wasn't so sure she wanted to go to boarding school. Especially after Pickles ran over her with his hook-and-ladder truck.
A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.
Some who went there were like Pickles, sent by his master to learn manners. Pickles who thrived at the boarding school by running over innocent cats with his hook-and-ladder truck.
Others were sent there like Jenny. She was sent to the boarding school while her master was sailing at sea. Jenny wasn't so sure she wanted to go to boarding school. Especially after Pickles ran over her with his hook-and-ladder truck.
A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.
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