Catwings Return

Hello again, cats

Once you have read Catwings, you have to read Catwings Return, right?

Our flying cats have found a good place, living on the farm. The children we met in the previous book, Susan and Hank, are taking care of the cats. There is a lot of love. The winged cats are the children's great secret.
”They feared people would want to put them in cages, in circuses or pet shows or laboratories, to make money by owning them or selling them.”

One day, James and Harriet decide to go visit their mother in the big city…

The writing is sharp and clear. The plot is straightforward, simpler than the first book. It doesn’t matter, of course. I spent a very happy twenty minutes!

Evie's Review: 5 stars for the baby cat - "The baby cat was awesome - the best thing ever and it better stay in the next couple of books. Or else.... I liked how it said "Hate. Hate. Hate." That was funny. But the best part was when the baby cat Jane was clawing into the cats body. It better stay mischievous HAHAHAHAHAHA. Humans suck, animals should rule the Earth! HA HA HA HA HA (evil laugh). MILK'S AWESOME."

I was worried they weren't going to find their mom after traveling such a great distance to find her. How awful that Jane Tabby's home was destroyed, stupid humans. But so lovely she found a loving human to care for her. Too bad she can't get a boy cat to stick around, they're stupid, too.

Evie REALLY liked the introduction of the show more vicious little black cat (reminded me of Nyx when she was itty bitty). show less

After recently reading what I at first considered to be my first Ursula K. Le Guin work, I was reminded of the fact that I was quite wrong... and that as a child, I had actually loved two Le Guin books, though that may have been because they included the young-Alana prerequisite for any good book: cats.

Catwings focuses on the Tabby family, or rather, the four children of Mrs. Jane Tabby. Without a father and with their home in a neighborhood that was growing worse, Mrs. Jane Tabby has her paws full and so there was no real time to worry much about the fact that her children had wings. There comes a point when Mrs. Tabby believes that her children need to leave and find a better life for themselves, and so she insists that they use show more their wings to fly away and do just that. She is left behind, newly engaged to a good tomcat, and while her words are a bit brusque, no one doubts that all Mrs. Tabby wants is the best life possible for her children. So Thelma, Roger, James, and Harriet fly into the country, where they make a life for themselves, but learn that life can be just as dangerous there as it was in the city. Ultimately, they befriend two human children who understand that they can never tell anyone about the flying cats or everyone would try to trap them. Instead, they give the cats a home in the top of their family's barn and the story ends happily with the semi-domestication of the flying cats.

Catwings Returns focuses primarily on James and Harriet, who decide that they wish to visit their mother in the old neighborhood, and so they leave their siblings in the country for what is supposed to be a simple visit. (Roger and Thelma believe the children they have befriended would be far too worried if everyone left, so they stay behind.) Of course, when James and Harrier arrive, they find that construction crews are demolishing the neighborhood, their mother is nowhere to be found, and their attention is caught by a mewing sound -- which turns out to be a black winged kitten in a condemned building. With patience, they befriend the kitten (who clearly must be their mother's kitten, they believe, given the wings) and manage to save him in the knick of time from the encroaching bulldozers. They find Mrs. Jane Tabby in a rooftop garden, their mother having recently been taken in by an old woman after the first bulldozers drove her from the neighborhood. Her husband was away on business (and she seems little concerned with his loss) and she cannot get down from the rooftop garden, but now that she knows her kitten is safe, Mrs. Jane Tabby is perfectly content to stay right where she is -- provided James and Harriet take her kitten with them to the country. They do so and the kitten is named Jane, happy in her new country surroundings with her older siblings.

There were two other books in the Catwings Collection -- named Marvelous Alexander and the Catwings and Jane on her Own -- but they never really captured me the way the first two did. At the time, I was charmed by the drawings and, let's face it, any story that featured kitties. Now that I'm older and know a bit more about Le Guin's work, I find them to be embedded with deeper concepts about parenthood, survival, independence, and trust. With Le Guin's interest in gender roles, it's unsurprising that we have a strong single mother and a similarly strong female leader in Thelma. The dangers of the world are quite present, both in the city and the country, and Le Guin is not afraid to make those manifest in attacks on the individuals and long-term repercussions.

I hadn't been that keen on picking up another Le Guin book after reading a series of her stories for adults, but this re-read of Catwings may have actually won her another chance. It's all a bit deeper than the simple story of flying cats and touches upon ideas of growing up and finding one's own way in the world (though there's still a healthy reliance on family). Catwings: not just for kitty-obsessed kids anymore. Though if you have one of those, then you should definitely introduce them to Mrs. Tabby and her children. show less

Sequel to Catwings- now the four catwing siblings are well settled in their new home, in an old abandoned barn near a farm on the edge of the forest. Some kids feed them regularly but keep their existence a secret. The catwings start to wonder how their mother is doing back in the city. Two of them decide to return and visit her, a bit nostalgic for their old home. They know it might be dangerous, and they have to avoid being seen by people, but what they find is totally unexpected. The buildings around the alley where they were born are being demolished, the dumpster they were born under is nowhere in sight, and how will they find their mother again? Before they can look for her though, their trip becomes a rescue mission when they show more encounter a young kitten who needs help. What happens sure was eventful- and touching with a heartwarming ending. So much packed into such a little book! show less

The Catwings – four sibling cats with wings – love the home they found in the country at Overhill Farm, where they are cared for by children Hank and Susan. However, they miss their mother in the city they left behind. Two siblings, James and Harriet, decide to visit their mother in the city. They're surprised by changes that have taken place since they left, and by their discovery of a black kitten...with wings just like theirs. Readers who fell in love with the Catwings in their first appearance will enjoy their further adventures. This book doesn't stand as well on its own as do the other books in the series. It seems to serve a dual purpose of sequel to the first book and setting the stage for the next two books in the series.

Again sweet but a little pointless. The younger Catwings decide to go back and visit their mother, but find that their natal alley is in the process of being demolished. They find and rescue another winged kitten (which points to the wings coming, somehow, from their mother, since the new kitten has a different father...). They magically find their mother, on no clue at all (she's the only cat that's ever been on a roof in the city?!), but end up returning to the farm with the new kitten, who gets christened by the humans there. End of story.

Just as cute and clever as the first, I enjoyed the further adventures of the intrepid flying cats. They are smart and kind, a fine example. I enjoyed meeting the newest cat and seeing how things turned out. Again, I would recommend this to an early readers who enjoys stories about animals.