In this story, a lonely old woman asks her husband for a pretty little cat so the old man sets off on a journey. He travels until he finds a field of millions of cats. He starts to choose the prettiest cat but each is pretty in its own way, so he eventually chooses them all. They all journey home to the old woman, eating and drinking everything in sight on the way. When they arrive home, the old lady points out that they will never be able to feed all the cats. The old man asks the cat to choose who is the prettiest and will stay. The cats begin to fight, and the old man and woman run from the noise. Then everything grows quiet. They go outside to see that all of the cats are gone. Then they notice a straggly little kitten. He was not involved in the fighting because he never claimed to be the prettiest. The old man and woman adopt him and with much love, he becomes a very pretty kitty.
My impressions
I liked this book as a child and still do. The illustrations are interesting. The language seems to mirror the man's journey, rolling like his path over the hills. I also like that this book does a good job of having a moral (the folly of pride and the benefits of humility) without the preachy tone that can accompany a moral.
Reviews
Reviewers agreed. School Library Journal notes that when this book was initially published, it was awarded the Newbery Honor and is the longest running American picture book in print. Reviewers noted how much fun the refrain is for kids to join in reading out loud.
Use in a library
A great way to use this in the library would be to have kids join in reading the musical refrain out loud. Then, it would be fun to use the progression of numbers to count fun things, like jelly beans or goldfish crackers. It would also be neat to make crafts in the shapes of either numbers or cats to help kids have fun with reading and numbers.
References
Bird, E. (2012). Top 100 picture books #21: Millions of cats. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2012/06/11/top-100-picture-books-21-millions-of-cats-by-wanda-gag.
Gag, W. (1989). Millions of Cats. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
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