Gobbolino the Witch's Cat

Product Information

It has been published with new illustrations more than once and a 70th anniversary edition of the self-illustrated version was published in the Puffin Modern Classics series. Să te schimbi pentru cineva înseamnă că acea persoană nu te va iubi pe tine, ci rolul pe care îl joci. I've owned kittens, they grow very fast, and his sister certainly becomes an adult cat in the same time, but Gobbolino remains stunted, kittenish-- immature.

A witch's kitten who wants to be good and be a nice family's kitchen cat, but never quite gets it right.While his sister Sootica learns how to ride a broomstick and turn mice into toads, Gobbolino sets out to find a family to care for him and a home of his own.

While reading this, I thought about all the stray cats in the world, all the abandoned ones, the unwanted, the discarded furry creatures and I wished with all my heart that they find a place to settle, to curl in, by the fire with a warm milk or a blanket to comfort them, a loving family to love them forever. I bought this book so that I could read it to my children, and hope that they would love it as much as I did as a child. The illustrations by Paul Howard are soft pencil sketches, giving the tale an old-fashioned quality that suits it very well. There are all the necessary characters that make a fairytale work: wicked witches on broomsticks, an ill but kind princess, a dragon in the tower, a kind woodcutter and his vain granddaughter… However, reading the story as an adult, I couldn't help seeing where the story was coming from: the misfit, disconnection, abandonment, and loneliness. I love this story of a little cat who, though born to a witch's cat, just isn't cut out to be a witch's cat like his mother and sister.Perhaps most poignant is the little tale of Gobbolino's adventures as he impersonates Toby the Dog in a traveling Punch-and-Judy show. Travelling between such establishments as an orphanage, a Punch and Judy show, a princess's castle - will the black cat ever find somewhere he can settle and make his home?

I realise that the repetition of whole sentences reflects the style of old fairy tales, but it didn't make it any more interesting to read. It never occurs to him to strike out on his own, rather than letting circumstances just carry him along. She said she enjoyed the book but it's not one that I enjoyed all that much, the repetitive format began to pall a bit.Una however loved it and summed up the plot to Martin "It's about a cat and he just wants to be a kitchen cat but it isn't fair because nobody understands him. It is beautifully written, and I love it now as an adult as much as I did 30 years ago when I read it the first time. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. Still, the charm of Gobbolino and the interest of his varied adventures, as well as the deep questions that the book raises and embodies, are more than enough to compensate for the equivocal ending. The world Gobbolino ventured into was not ready to accept him as who he was; in that world, he could either be a witch's cat, or a kitchen cat, not something in between.