Reviews

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

caitlin_bookchats's review against another edition

1.0

For some reason when I started reading this I thought it had something to do with The Three Lives of Thomasina an odd film I watched as a child. That was quickly disproved. I failed to connect with this book in any way. The role of the housekeeper and the cat seemed almost exclusively to help the poor artist with no real explanation as to why the artist should get such help. In the end the Cat does get some credit/reward from the artist but the housekeeper seems to exist just to introduce the cat, serve the artist, and sing?

I'm honestly not sure why this won a Newbery. Presumably it's because of the introduction to Buddha/Buddhism that seems the true purpose of the book. That's not actually something I can comment on re: accuracy so I'm not sure?

All that being said, YMMV of course, and it is a quite short book with illustrations and much white space so if you think you'll enjoy it it won't hurt to give it a shot.

bookwyrmknits's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

Short and sweet story about love, forgiveness, and doing the right thing. The illustrations in the book are stunning, and I like the addition of the poems - the Songs of the Housekeeper.