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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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
I really enjoyed Millions of Cats!
The story is simple but has a lot of heart, and the black-and-white illustrations are unique and full of charm. I liked the repetitive rhythm and how it builds up to a surprising ending. It’s a classic for a reason — both fun and meaningful!
The story is simple but has a lot of heart, and the black-and-white illustrations are unique and full of charm. I liked the repetitive rhythm and how it builds up to a surprising ending. It’s a classic for a reason — both fun and meaningful!
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
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?"
I remembered reading and loving this book when I was a kid, so when I decided that I wanted to start collecting children's books about cats more actively, this was one of the first things I bought. I was not disappointed at all. This book is as wonderful as I remembered it being, perhaps more so, because now I have cats and can relate to the feeling that one just needs a cat to be complete.
The story is simple: a little old man and a little old woman live with everything they could want in a nice little house. But they are unable to be happy because they desperately want a cat. So the man sets out on a journey to find a cat. He comes upon a hill covered with millions and billions of cats and decides to select the cutest one. Quickly he show more is overcome, as every cat he sees is irresistible (a sentiment I can relate to - adoption days at rescue organizations are horrible for me - I want to save all the kitties!). So he ends up taking every cat with him. On his journey home, the kitties drink and entire lake and defoliate an entire field of grass in attempt to find enough food and water for all of them.
The next part gets a little macabre & I confess I did not remember this aspect of it all (the fact that it was there delighted me though!). When the old man returns home with billions of cats, the old woman is overcome. They simply cannot feed, water, and house this many cats. And they do not know how to choose which cat to keep. So they decide to ask the cats to decide which of them is the prettiest. A clawing, shrieking fight quickly breaks out & the couple are forced to flee into their house, fearing the cats will destroy them. They wonder what will happen to the cats and the next morning, there are no cats to be found. They speculate that the cats may have eaten each other up..... And then, hidden in the grass, the old man finds a tiny, scraggly little kitten. He asks the kitten how he has managed to survive, given that he is so small. The kitten replies that he is not pretty, so when all the other cats began to fight amongst themselves about who was the prettiest, he just stayed quiet and no one paid him any notice. So the man brings the scraggly little cat home, and with good food & grooming, the scraggly little kitten grows into a happy, pretty, plump little ball. And the whole family is content.
I loved the story & the amazing illustrations! My only quibble, as a cat rescuer, is that the couple didn't at least try to take a couple more cats. How silly is that? show less
The story is simple: a little old man and a little old woman live with everything they could want in a nice little house. But they are unable to be happy because they desperately want a cat. So the man sets out on a journey to find a cat. He comes upon a hill covered with millions and billions of cats and decides to select the cutest one. Quickly he show more is overcome, as every cat he sees is irresistible (a sentiment I can relate to - adoption days at rescue organizations are horrible for me - I want to save all the kitties!). So he ends up taking every cat with him. On his journey home, the kitties drink and entire lake and defoliate an entire field of grass in attempt to find enough food and water for all of them.
The next part gets a little macabre & I confess I did not remember this aspect of it all (the fact that it was there delighted me though!). When the old man returns home with billions of cats, the old woman is overcome. They simply cannot feed, water, and house this many cats. And they do not know how to choose which cat to keep. So they decide to ask the cats to decide which of them is the prettiest. A clawing, shrieking fight quickly breaks out & the couple are forced to flee into their house, fearing the cats will destroy them. They wonder what will happen to the cats and the next morning, there are no cats to be found. They speculate that the cats may have eaten each other up..... And then, hidden in the grass, the old man finds a tiny, scraggly little kitten. He asks the kitten how he has managed to survive, given that he is so small. The kitten replies that he is not pretty, so when all the other cats began to fight amongst themselves about who was the prettiest, he just stayed quiet and no one paid him any notice. So the man brings the scraggly little cat home, and with good food & grooming, the scraggly little kitten grows into a happy, pretty, plump little ball. And the whole family is content.
I loved the story & the amazing illustrations! My only quibble, as a cat rescuer, is that the couple didn't at least try to take a couple more cats. How silly is that? 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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Awards and Honors
Awards
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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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