"The next day, May still had not come home.
Margaux wondered,
was she alone?
was she hurt?
was she hungry?"
Margaux met her kitten May when she was six years old. They did their growing together. Readers learn a lot about May through observations of their time spent at home. Mostly, May stays home. She rarely leaves; if she does, she is back in time for dinner. There came a day when that didn't happen. May was late getting home. Margaux searched and called for her. May did not respond. It was time for a careful search, and the family helped. Worry set in as May's time away grew more prolonged.
Following the failed search, Margaux helped her auntie finish packing for her move to the city. All the while, she was thinking and worrying about May and about her aunt's leaving. So much to miss. Another day dawned without any sign of May. The worries grew. While Margaux worried, her auntie was unpacking boxes in her new home.
Margaux had no news to share when Nitosis called at the end of her long unpacking day. Imagine her surprise when she heard a quiet meow coming from the bathroom. In one of those packed boxes, guess who she found! It didn't take long to get May packed with a soft blanket in a warm crate for the journey back home.
There is little drama in this quiet and tender storytelling. Yet, all of the emotion is real and faultlessly shown in Julie Flett's signature artwork. I appreciate that she ends her story thinking of her readers as she always does.
"Do you have a story to tell?
Your turn!"
Back matter includes an author's note that speaks to her love for cats, and to the real story that inspired her book. There is also a list of Cree words with a pronunciation guide, a list concerning kinship from the Cree Literacy Network, and a list of words that describe relatives. Truly lovely!
No comments:
Post a Comment