17th August Black Cat Appreciation Day

What is special about black cats? Quite a lot really. Our family has been a cat family. For eighteen years we had two very curious, very opinionated, very sociable Tonkinese cats and one of them was very dark, black in most lights. He was the runt of his litter and my daughter was convinced we should take him home. In contrast, his champagne coloured brother was the alpha male of the litter. He was in charge and he was the boss at home too. He ate first, he decided where they would sleep, what they would play, so when the 'boss' died first we feared for our black cat because we thought he would be at a loss. We should not have worried, he'd had a good teacher and he just became the 'boss' in every way. 

Black cats have a lot of lore and superstitions that surround them and they haven’t always been greeted with love and adoration. For our family a black cat was not a problem, but black cat symbolism varies from culture to culture and runs the gamut from symbolising a positive omen to being the harbinger of bad luck. 

Irish and Scottish people respected black cats as they believed that crossing paths with one would bring prosperity to your home.

In Japan and much of Asia, black cats symbolize good luck. Some Japanese folklore suggests that if a single woman crosses a black cat, she will find many potential suitors. 

In Greek Mythology, Hera, the Queen of the Gods, turned Galinthias, her servant, into a black cat in a fit of anger. Galinthias, in cat form, became an assistant to Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, the moon, and death.

In North America, the Puritans who settled in New England believed that witches possessed the ability to change into black cats.

How do black cats fare in children's books? 

They are often portrayed as the villain. See Scarface Claw and Slinky Malinki  in the Hairy Maclary series.

 A Dark, Dark Tale  by Ruth Brown

Is Sid  from Six Dinner Sid, by Inga Moore a villain? 

They are often part of stories about witches and Halloween. See

•  Moonlight the Halloween Cat  by Cynthia Rylant

• Trixie the Witch's Cat by Nick Butterworth

• Rumblewick,  the witch's cat from the series of books that started with My Unwilling Witch by Hiaywn Oram

• Mog from the  Meg and Mog  series by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski. Mog does have some white stripes though.

Then there are the favourite series where they are not witch's cats, villains or heroes.

• Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

• Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin and James Dean

The article I read did say that black cats were less likely to be adopted from cat shelters. There is 'black cat bias'. Research shows that this is because 

• People view black cats as less friendly and more aggressive

• People are still superstitious

• People believe they’re not able to read the emotions of black cats

Two books about adopted black cats are

• Holly  by Ruth Brown

• The Black Cat Who Only Wanted to be Loved by Rosa Silva

Still need convincing black cats reign supreme...read 

16th January Appreciate a Dragon Day

There are hundreds of great picture books and junior novels for the dragon-loving reader, so it is very hard to favour just a few when celebrating Appreciate a Dragon Day. 

If you want a general dragon picture book with magnificent illustrations though you can't go past Tell Me a Dragon by Jackie Morris. And although there are many more recent titles I still love The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame and the edition with Inga Moore's illustrations makes it very accessible to young children.

24th November Carlo Collodi (1826 - 1890) Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 - 1924) Yoshiko Uchida (1921 - 1992)

Today there is three authors and the first two are best known for one particular book. The third is better known for her novels but I want to highlight a picture book.

Carlo Collodi was the pen name for Carlo Lorenzini, an Italian journalist who wrote The Adventures of Pinocchio, initially as a serial for an Italian children's magazine. This story of a wooden puppet who comes to life has a big impact on very young children, possibly because of the fact that his nose grows if he tells a lie. The story has inspired many movies, abbreviated versions and spin-offs.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in England, but travelled backwards and forwards several times between there and the USA. She is the author of the classic, The Secret Garden, a book that has also been made into movies and a multitude of variants. Many of the versions have been illustrated by quite illustrious members of the children's literature world.

like Inga Moore and Robert Ingpen.

Yoshiko Uchida was born in USA to Japanesse immigrant parents. During WWII she was taken from her university and interred in a camp because USA no longer felt comfortable about its Japanese immigrants after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. Because of this Yoshiko's many novels focus on the Japanese-American experience and highlight bigotry and racism. However, in my library the book we have is the picture book The Magic Purse which is a retelling of a Japanese folktale. It tells the story of a poor farmer who meets a maiden on his way to the shrine and then takes a detour to the Red Swamp to deliver a message to her parents. Keiko Narahashi illustrated the story with watercolours and bold black strokes that evoke Japanese scroll paintings.

8th March Kenneth Grahame (1859 - 1932)

Kenneth Grahame is best known for Wind in the Willows but for young children I think The Reluctant Dragon is more accessible. Both have been published in abridged editions and this makes the essence of the stories and their plot details readily available to children, but they inevitably lose some Grahame's wonderful language and turn of phrase. I like the abridged version of The Reluctant Dragon that Inga Moore has created. Her illustrations show the very gentle dragon who really doesn't want to behave in the more stereotypical dragon manner.

A newer book, Kenny and the Dragon by Tony DiTerlizzi of Spiderwick fame is inspired by Grahame's Reluctant Dragon. This is the story of a rabbit called Kenneth (Kenny) and his two friends, George who is a bookshop owner and retired dragonslayer, and Grahame who is a dragon who enjoys reading poetry. While this spoof is not as literary as the original it is easier to read and children will read it themselves! It too, is worth a look just for the illustrations.