Millions of Cats
by Wanda Gág (Illustrator)
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How can an old man and his wife select one cat from a choice of millions and trillions?Tags
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A lonely old man sets out to find a cat to keep him and his wife company. He finds millions of cats and cannot decide which one is the prettiest, so he takes them all home for his wife to decide. She also cannot decide and as a means of choosing, asks the cats, "Which on of you is the prettiest?" The cats then proceed to fight and eat each other up until only one remains, a homely cat who did not profess his beauty when asked and therefore went unperturbed by the other cats. The old couple take him in and nourish him until he becomes the prettiest cat they've ever seen, and they should know because they've seen millions of them. To be honest my favorite part of this tale was that the cats literally ate each other up. I like when fairy show more and folk tales have dark sides to underscore their points, in this case the dangers of vanity and how beauty can be nurtured. I would use this story as a mentor text for patterned stories, as the scenes are repeated with some variation. show less
An old man wants a cat for his wife, but has trouble picking just one when he discovers a hill covered with millions of them, billions of them, trillions of them. When he tries to take them all home, the narrative suddenly veers into horror territory as they cut a swath across the land like locusts before turning on each other.
Dark and weird with too many evil cats, millions of evil cats, billions of evil cats, trillions of evil cats.
This is one of those books that we've had for twenty-plus years but never revisited after the first time we read it to our toddler.
FOR REFERENCE:
Rated “Indifferent" in our old book database by Rod and Adelia.
Dark and weird with too many evil cats, millions of evil cats, billions of evil cats, trillions of evil cats.
This is one of those books that we've had for twenty-plus years but never revisited after the first time we read it to our toddler.
FOR REFERENCE:
Rated “Indifferent" in our old book database by Rod and Adelia.
A childhood favourite, I had not read the book in many a decade. While mostly still delightful, I hadn't remembered how violent and genocidal it was, with millions and billions and trillions of cute cats and kittens brutally devouring each other to utter oblivion. With jaded adult eyes, it's a lot more tragic than triumphant.
One of only a few picture-books to have been chosen as a Newbery Honor title - Wanda Gág's own The ABC Bunny was another, in 1934 - Millions of Cats is the charming tale of a very old man and a very old woman who, lonely and childless, decide to get a cat. But when the very old man finds himself before a hill covered in cats - "Cats here, cats there, / Cats and kittens everywhere, / Hundreds of cats, / Thousands of cats, / Millions and billions and trillions of cats," he cannot decide which one to take home. Returning with a horde of felines in tow, the very old man is greeted with consternation by the very old woman, and a decision is reached: they will keep the prettiest. But which is the prettiest...?
This book seems to have evoked a show more strong negative reaction in a number of readers, who have decried the violent and disturbing nature of Gág's solution, but I confess that I saw little cause for concern here. Millions of Cats is so clearly written in a fairy-tale style - the nameless little old couple who long for a child (or child-substitute), the quest to find the child, the convenient disappearance of the rivals, as a result of their own flaws - that I think young readers will take it in stride, treating it as the fantasy it is so clearly meant to be. I myself was reminded, especially at the beginning, of one of my own childhood favorites, Gladys L. Adshead's What Miranda Knew, which also featured a lonely older couple living in a quaint little home. Of course, that story involved a group of angels descending with two little babies for the old couple to care for, rather than a winsome kitten, but the sense of surreal whimsy is very similar.
The narrative itself, with its sing-song refrain about the millions of cats, reads very well, and would make an excellent story-hour selection. The type, which looks hand-written, is charming, and the illustrations are simply adorable, with a folk motif style that really appealed to me. In short: I'm going to have to disagree with some of my friends, much though I respect their views. I think Millions of Cats is a picture-book winner - one that definitely deserves a place on the young reader's fairy-tale shelf! show less
This book seems to have evoked a show more strong negative reaction in a number of readers, who have decried the violent and disturbing nature of Gág's solution, but I confess that I saw little cause for concern here. Millions of Cats is so clearly written in a fairy-tale style - the nameless little old couple who long for a child (or child-substitute), the quest to find the child, the convenient disappearance of the rivals, as a result of their own flaws - that I think young readers will take it in stride, treating it as the fantasy it is so clearly meant to be. I myself was reminded, especially at the beginning, of one of my own childhood favorites, Gladys L. Adshead's What Miranda Knew, which also featured a lonely older couple living in a quaint little home. Of course, that story involved a group of angels descending with two little babies for the old couple to care for, rather than a winsome kitten, but the sense of surreal whimsy is very similar.
The narrative itself, with its sing-song refrain about the millions of cats, reads very well, and would make an excellent story-hour selection. The type, which looks hand-written, is charming, and the illustrations are simply adorable, with a folk motif style that really appealed to me. In short: I'm going to have to disagree with some of my friends, much though I respect their views. I think Millions of Cats is a picture-book winner - one that definitely deserves a place on the young reader's fairy-tale shelf! show less
O título já diz tudo, se trata de milhões de gatos mesmo, que se comem e só deixam um filhote magrinho que não se acha bonito, mas é amado. Meio aterrorizante, mas tudo bem, hehehe
This is one of the first books I remember. "Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats!"
Read this with Ben in April 2015. "The very old man and the very old women seem pretty undisturbed about the cat genocide they instigated." "And what were the hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats eating and drinking before, when they were all living on the same hillside?"
Read this with Ben in April 2015. "The very old man and the very old women seem pretty undisturbed about the cat genocide they instigated." "And what were the hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats eating and drinking before, when they were all living on the same hillside?"
Gág, W. (1928). Millions of cats. New York: Coward-McCann.
An old couple finds itself lonely. The wife asks her husband for a cat to be company. He sets out on a long journey to find the “prettiest” cat, but when he comes across “millions of cats”, he finds himself unable to choose one, and brings them all back home. When asked to choose among themselves for the prettiest cat, the cats fight themselves to death over it (they eat each other). Only one little cat was spared because he did not think himself pretty. He is taken in by the couple, and ends up “the most beautiful cat in the whole world”.
What makes this book special is that all the inside illustrations are in black and white, which serves the story well because the show more lack of colors actually helps focusing one’s attention on the illustrations. I find them very neatly drawn, and I think they portray the story in very cute and lively ways. The style of these illustrations reminds me of some traditional illustrations from Russia. The rhythmic cadence of the text adds to the appeal of this book. The repetition of “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats” would delight an audience of children. On a personal level, I also liked this book because I am a cat lover who recently took in a lost little kitten who has also become to me “the most beautiful cat in the whole world”.
Ages 3 to 10. Would work very well as a read-aloud for younger ages because of the rhythmic quality of the text.
Another book written in the same decade: Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (1926). Illus. by Ernest H. Shepard. show less
An old couple finds itself lonely. The wife asks her husband for a cat to be company. He sets out on a long journey to find the “prettiest” cat, but when he comes across “millions of cats”, he finds himself unable to choose one, and brings them all back home. When asked to choose among themselves for the prettiest cat, the cats fight themselves to death over it (they eat each other). Only one little cat was spared because he did not think himself pretty. He is taken in by the couple, and ends up “the most beautiful cat in the whole world”.
What makes this book special is that all the inside illustrations are in black and white, which serves the story well because the show more lack of colors actually helps focusing one’s attention on the illustrations. I find them very neatly drawn, and I think they portray the story in very cute and lively ways. The style of these illustrations reminds me of some traditional illustrations from Russia. The rhythmic cadence of the text adds to the appeal of this book. The repetition of “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats” would delight an audience of children. On a personal level, I also liked this book because I am a cat lover who recently took in a lost little kitten who has also become to me “the most beautiful cat in the whole world”.
Ages 3 to 10. Would work very well as a read-aloud for younger ages because of the rhythmic quality of the text.
Another book written in the same decade: Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (1926). Illus. by Ernest H. Shepard. show less
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Author Information
A highly touted writer and illustrator of children's picture books, Gag was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, to Anton Gag, also an artist, and Lisse Gag. She married Earle Marshall Humphreys in 1930. She studied art at the St. Paul Institute of Arts, the Minneapolis School of Art, and the Art Students League in New York City. Gag began her career show more illustrating for the children's section of the Minneapolis Journal; first had her works exhibited at the Weyrhe Gallery, New York City, 1926; and created the text and drawings for her most famous work, Millions of Cats, in 1928. The book was a runner-up for the John Newbery Medal in 1929, won first prize at the Philadelphia Lithograph Show in 1930, and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. Other important works include ABC Bunny (1933), another runner-up for the Newbery award in 1934; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a runner-up for the Caldecott award in 1939; and Nothing at All, also a runner-up for the Caldecott award in 1942. In 1993, the centennial of her birth was celebrated with special exhibits of her art and a number of evaluative articles. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Millions of Cats
- Original title
- Millions of Cats
- Original publication date
- 1928
- People/Characters
- Old Woman; Old Man
- Related movies
- Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories: Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnold the Cat/Millions of Cats (1992 | IMDb)
- First words
- Once upon a time there was a very old man and a very old woman.
- Quotations
- Cats here, cats there, cats and kittens everywhere, hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.
It is the most beautiful cat in the whole world, said the very old man.
"Oh, I'm just a very homely little cat, " said the kitten, "So when you asked who was the prettiest, I didn't say anything. So nobody bothered me.
So it happened that every time the very old man looked up, he saw another cat which was so pretty he could not bear to leave it, and before he knew it, he had chosen them all. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I ought to know, for I've seen-- hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats-- and not one was as pretty as this one.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- This book shares a same ISBN as Deep in the Forest (Picture Puffins).
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