One-Eyed Cat

A quiet but powerful story of a boy who gets an air gun for his birthday, possibly accidentally (or not) injures a cat with it, and then spends the winter months doing his own private penance for it but trying to care for the cat. This main thread is supplemented by others that are equally good: his mother suffers from a debilitating illness that keeps Ned worried, and there’s also the friendship between him and an old man who lives nearby. The different parts of the story are woven together by their (and Ned’s) back-of-the-mind whispers of mortality while also all being celebrations, of a sort, of live. A good one, this.

It takes place in the years just after the Great Depression- times are still rather hard, pleasures are simple. The main character, an eleven-year-old boy named Ned, enjoys walking in the woods and spends a lot of time at home. His father is parson in their small town, his mother is practically bed-ridden with a debilitating illness, and their housekeeper has a sharp tongue and airs of self-importance. Ned tries to please his father, worries about his mother, and usually avoids the housekeeper. He walks to school with his friends, sometimes squabbling with the other boys. He does chores and errands for an elderly man next door, slowly building up a friendship.

Then his visiting uncle gives him an air rifle for his birthday. Ned is eager show more to try it out on tin cans but his father disapproves of the gift and makes him put it away in the attic until he is older. Ned has always been obedient, but now he sneaks upstairs in the middle of the night and takes the gun outside. He just wants to handle it once; then promises to himself he'll put it away again. But he sees a shadow move by the corner of a building and takes a shot. Coming home again, he thinks he glimpses a face in an upstairs window- did someone see him? hear the shot? who was it? He feels guilty, but it's so much worse when later at the old man's house he sees a dirty, thin cat in the yard- with a missing eye. Ned is convinced he's responsible for the cat's injury. It is too wild to bring indoors but with the old man he tries to care for it- leaving out food, providing shelter. He worries what will happen to the cat when winter comes. Over the next eight months, guilt slowly eats away at him. His thoughts of the cat and his fault color everything around him, and he learns how hard it is to hold up a lie, when you don't know who might really know the truth...

This is a solemn story full of calm detail about relationships, the beauty of life, and the finality of death. The descriptions of the landscape, how people think and feel, are full of clarity. The ending feels a bit -flat- there's no huge resolution- just a few quiet conversations that maybe straighten things out, a glimpse of the cat that suggests to Ned how it might be doing- but he never is really sure. Life is like that, sometimes.

from the Dogear Diary show less

For his 11th birthday Ned's uncle gives him a Daisy air-rifle. Ned's father, a preacher, doesn't approve of the gun and puts it away in the attic until Ned turns 14. Ned has always been respectful to his preacher father and his arthritic mother. He has never really been disobedient, until now. He sneaks up into the attic and brings the rifle down. He just wants to fire it once and then he will gladly put it away. He sees a shadow near the barn and shoots. As he turns to go in the house he sees a face at the window. Was it his father, who would know that Ned had disobeyed? Was it snoopy, sour Mrs. Scallop? Could it have possibly have been his mother? Ned slips back into the house and replaces the rifle. Later when he is at his neighbor's show more house helping out he sees a cat with only one eye. Ned is sure that he is responsible for the injury. As life happens around Ned the guilt builds up in him. Who does he tell and how will that help now? show less

This book would make an excellent class reader for 11-13 year olds, complementing well The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byers. It is set in America in the 1930s and tells the story of 11-year-old Ned, the only child of the Reverend Wallis and his invalid wife. Ned receives a gun from his uncle for his birthday which his father forbids him to use. Ned, usually obedient, defies him and tries out the gun in the dead of night - and is convinced he has partially blinded a cat as a result. The book explores Ned's anxiety and guilt in a wholly realistic way -- here is an author who really knows how children think and feel. Ned's relationship with his parents is a central theme of the book and here, as elsewhere, the writing is peppered with small show more wisdoms and gentle insights. The cover, unfortunately is dreadful, belying the real nature of this beautifully crafted book. Category: Middle/Secondary. . ...., Pan Pipers, D1.99 pbk. Ages 10 to 14. (Val Randall (Books for Keeps No. 51, July 1988))
Won Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High, Tenth Edition, 1988 ; National Council of Teachers of English; United States show less

" Ned was at once reminded of the past. The time before his mother had become ill.... It was the time he'd been happy and hadn't known it. When he was happy now, he would remind himself he was. He would say, at this moment I'm happy."

" you must beware of people who wear their hearts on their sleeves; it's not the natural place to keep your heart--it turns rusty and thin, and it leaves you hollow inside."

Mrs. Scallop " was locked inside of her own opinions like a prisoner."

It's important to know that this takes place during the recovery from the Great Depression, on the Hudson river in rural New York. And that mother has rheumatoid arthritis, an auto-immune disease.

One-Eyed Cat is a beautiful story about the relationships that we build with our friends and family. This book reveals that friends and family are supposed to love unconditionally, accept one another and be there to listen. Ned is for the most part a good kid but one day, the son of a minister decides to disobey his father. Ned takes the rifle that was stored in the attic out one evening and shoots at what he thinks is a shadow? Did Ned shoot the rifle into thin air? Did Ned actually hit something? He will have to live with the consequences of his actions. Ned lives with the possible guilt of hurting another living creature all the while coping with his mother's serious illness and becoming friends with an elderly man. One-Eyed Cat is a show more quick and easy read. It is a great story about family and friends. show less

A gift from Uncle Hilary—Ned’s Mother’s beloved brother—vivacious traveler and the apple of his sister’s eye, sets the stage for the moral dilemma Ned wrestles with as he disobeys his father, sneaks into the attic and takes the Daisy air rifle out from the attic where his father has placed it, strictly forbidding Ned to use it, as he feels the only learning that comes from a rifle is something dead. Ned shoots at a shadow, but he is guilt ridden when the one-eyed cat shows up at Mr. Scully’s, his elderly neighbor who Ned helps after school. A bond of friendship develops and Ned learns to cope with his Mother’s illness, the death of his friend, and the painful reflections that haunt a child as they struggle with the show more trepidations of life.
If You Liked This, Try: Number the Stars by Lois Lowery, The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatly Snyder, Maniac McGee by Jerry Spinelli, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks.
Awards: Newbery Honor Award, 1985 show less