Module 2: "Millions of Cats" by Wanda Gag

Book Cover Image:       

Book Summary:   This is a unique tale of how humility wins out over vanity.  An older couple is looking for the perfect cat.  So the little old man goes out in search of the prettiest cat in the land.  There are so many cats, he can’t decide so he brings them all home – millions of cats follow him.  They can’t decide, so the little old woman suggests that the cats choose between themselves who is the prettiest.  This leads to fighting and only one survivor – a cat who thought he was ugly and therefore did not join the fight.  The old couple adopts the ugly cat and after it is bathed and nursed back to health, becomes the most beautiful cat in the land, and dearly loved by the couple.

APA Reference:    Gag, W. (1928).  Millions of Cats.  New York, NY: Coward McCann, Inc.

My Impressions:  This book is the first published American picture book and is done in pen & ink drawings.  The lines are fluid and the illustrations shaded, giving the book somewhat of a somber tone.  The theme of the book is not so much about cats or an aging couple’s desire for a pet, but about the nature of beauty and how aesthetically it relates to happiness.  In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the cat who didn’t consider itself to be pretty turned out to be the best choice out of millions of contenders.  This is a book that promotes self-esteem in children – everyone is beautiful in their own special way.

Professional Review:

Wanda Gág's Millions of Cat
Children's book review by Steve Barancik
Ages 4-8

A children's book about cats...millions of them!
Named by School Library Journal as one of the "One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century" (the previous century), Millions of Cats is a treasure. It is also one of the few picture books to win a Newbery Honor, and it is reckoned by some to be the oldest American picture book still in print!
It's a simple tale. The very old woman's husband sets out in search of the perfect cat for his wife. Then he comes across a hill "which was quite covered in cats."
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.

This poses a bit of a dilemma. The old man wants the prettiest cat for his wife, but the more he looks the harder it is to decide which is the prettiest.

So he invites them all to return home with him. Along the way they drain a pond and denude a hillside. Millions of cats can do a fair amount of ecological damage!

The very old woman is, naturally, a bit overwhelmed. She resolves to let the cats themselves decide which is the prettiest and therefore should stay with the old couple.

But it turns out that asking a bunch of cats which is the prettiest only leads to disagreement among the vain creatures. The old couple retreats into their house when quite the argument ensues.  When they re-emerge, not a single cat is in evidence. It seems they all ate each other!

But there, in the tall grass, they spot one scraggly, scrawny, frightened little kitten. When they ask him how he survived, he explains that he was the only one who didn't claim to be the prettiest...so all the other cats left him out of the fight!
And therein lies Wanda Gág's lesson for us all: vanity will get you nowhere...except ingested. Beauty is only skin-deep. The little kitten, of course, grows up to be the prettiest cat of all...though presumably if he knows that, he's learned to keep it to himself!

[Review of the book Millions of cats, by S. Barancik].  (2006).  Retrieved from http://www.best-childrens-books.com/millions-of-cats.html

Library Uses:

This book would be a good one to introduce a discussion about beauty and self-esteem.  It could also be used for a Storytime about pets.  The pictures in the book are black and white, and one could easily be photocopied for a coloring page or to fill in other possible endings the children might think of for this book.