by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 06, 2010

Joy Harjo is a poet - but she's also written a wonderful children's book.  "The Good Luck Cat," tells the story of Woogie, "a stripedy cat with tickling whiskers" who belongs to a little girl. Her aunt tells her that some rare cats bring good luck when you pet them. And apparently it's a true story, since the book is dedicated "in memory of my aunt Lois Harjo, who told me about the good luck of cats."

Harjo's poetry is obvious in the book's description. She writes that the cat's eyes are a "green electric" color, and the cat's purrs sound like the beat of a drum. But the story is also full of exciting scenes, as Harjo lists out every moment when the cat almost lost its life - while warming itself against a car's engine, or cleaning its fur in a busy street. Once the girl's mother even discovers the cat in the most precarious position of all - tumbling around with the clothes in the dryer!

There's a dog attack, and a fight with another cat - and once, the cat even falls from a tree. But one day the cat disappears.  "Have you seen my cat?" asks a mournful sign they leave on a telephone pole. "We knocked on every door, but no one had seen her."

All the cat's adventures make it seem real and likeable, so there's real drama after the cat suddenly disappears. "For four days I missed my stripedy cat," Harjo writes poetically, "with the softest fur, the tickling whiskers, and the green electric eyes." There's a sad list of dangers the cat had already faced - and the steps the girl's family tried, in vain, to find Woogie and bring her home. The little girl leaves out meat loaf on their door step - and catnip, and a rubber ball - in the desperate hope that it will somehow magically lure the cat home.

"The next morning we found Woogie curled up by her empty dish...she was purring and singing as if she had never left."

Author Joy Harjo is a member of the Muskogee-Creek tribe, according to the book's jacket, and she's won the lifetime achievement award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. And the book makes a couple casual references to her Native American heritage.  (The little girl tries to take the cat on a trip to their powwow - and she rubs the cat for luck when she can't find her special powwow earrings.) But mostly it's the story of a cat - and after its return, the girl is convinced that her aunt was right.  After all the dangers it's faced, this must be a lucky cat.

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