by Moe Zilla

Created on: April 05, 2010

This book touches some heavy philosophical ground. Nellie is a marionette representing a beautiful white cat. She has blue eyes and a smile, but with strings leading to four wooden paws which pivot on a screw. She's constructed out of wood, yarn and broom straws, and every afternoon a "clever old woman" tugs her strings to make her dance like a professional - making Nellie "leap and dip and spin." But the lady also has a real cat - named Big Tom - who watches the dancing marionette with a puzzled look on his face, and suggests "It would be better if you danced all on your own."

Natalie Babbitt wrote "Tuck, Everlasting," which touches on the theme of mortality, and she was nearly 60 years old when she wrote "Nellie, A Cat on her Own" in 1989. (She dedicates the book to her first grandchild.) In her story the marionette ignores the real cat, content to contemplate her next chance to dance again, until the old woman dies on the book's fourth page. "Her friends all came and took her away to the churchyard," Babbitt writes, "and Nellie and Big Tom were left alone." Nellie had been content with her safe little life, but Big Tom now suggests a different philosophy: belong to yourself.

He removes the puppet's strings, insisting they'll get tangled and in the way. But instead, the puppet drops dramatically to the floor with a clunk. I'll admit that I held my breath before turning the page. "There," the real cat says to the motionless marionette.

"You're free."

He tucks the puppet inside one of the old lady's hats, and then tugs it around like a sled. They meet other cats, and travel through the forest, until they come to the top of a big hill. Babbitt contributes a wonderfully mysterious illustration of the two cats waiting for a nighttime gathering. There's a full moon lighting a grassy clearing, creating long shadows from the trees that surround it - and the two silhouetted cats at the bottom of the page!

And she also draws seven intriguing cats on the next page as they all start arriving for the gathering. In the hat, the marionette kitten reacts to all the sights that she's seeing. Finally Big Tom says to the marionette, "Would you care to dance?" And Nellie feels a stirring in her wooden limbs as she stands up and steps over the hat's brim!

There's a wonderful two-page illustration of all the cats dancing in the clearing under the light of the full moon. It's the book's highlight, since the story ultimately ends with some ambiguity. At Nellie's request, Big Tom leaves her behind in a hollow in the tree so she can always look out over the magical clearing. The illustrations suggest that the wooden cat might simply stay frozen forever, but the text assures the reader that she again danced with her cat friends every night that the moon was full.

And that the rest of the time...she danced for herself!

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.