Today’s book recommendation, The Cat Who Came In Off the Roof is a translated classic. Here’s a snippet from the About the Author blurb:
Annie M. G. Schmidt, (1911-1995) was regarded as the Queen of Dutch Children’s Literature and her books have been an essential part of every Dutch childhood for the last fifty years. […] Schmidt is now included in the canon of Dutch history taught to all Dutch school children, alongside Spinoza, Anne Frank, and Vincent van Gogh.
I’ve not known of Annie Schmidt until now—how delightful to happen upon another culture’s treasure! Here’s the book’s summary:
“Minou, formerly a cat but now a woman with many cattish ways, helps Tibbs, a newspaper reporter, with information she gets from her many feline friends.”
You’ve heard me go on about the vagaries of what makes a book for children rather than adults. It’s often determined by the age of the protagonist. My books about the Neverland are immediately classified as for children both because of who Peter Pan is for historically, and because my protagonist is eleven years old.
This is what I found so interesting about The Cat Who Came In Off the Roof: the protagonists are adults. There is one child character, but she is a secondary character. I don’t know enough about Dutch literature to know if this is common among children’s books, or if Ms. Schmidt was simply so well established as a children’s book writer that she could bend the “rules.”
It’s a charming little book, a quick read, with a satisfying resolution—things I enjoy. It’s the perfect thing to read before bed when you don’t want to get overexcited or upset. I promise sweet dreams should follow.
Happy Reading!
In case you’ve yet to explore Piper Pan and Her Merry Band….
Book One
Book Two