Jennie (Collins Modern Classics)

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And honestly, I can't wait to read this one to my niece and nephew when they're a year or two older. This does sound rather lovely, though – there’s something very special about revisiting those books from our past that really matter to us, isn’t there?

After serving in the First World War he became a journalist with the New York Daily News where he enjoyed particular acclaim for his sports writing. I felt nostalgic as I read THE ABANDONED, because it has that timeless quality of the other great books of children's literature.It speaks to the loneliness, the piteous abuse and abandonment of the forgotten, and the sweetness of home, love, and family. But, unlike Five Children and It, it had no heart to save it from being completely relegated to outdated and no longer relevant children's fiction. On waking, he is astonished to find that he has turned into a cat… The world is a dangerous place for him, but luckily he is rescued and befriended by Jennie, a kindly stray tabby who has been abandoned by her owners.

I just finished it again last night, cried through long parts of it, and stayed up much too late to get to the end. Peter discovers that he can be stepped upon by people on the sidewalk, crushed by vehicles on the road or bullied by other cats and sometimes dogs. The story is sweet, as Peter and Jennie loyally band together through adventures around the world, meeting kind and cruel people (and other animals), and working out just where they want to be. She is a tabby cat with tiger stripes and she says that her name is Jennie, and she rescued him from the street. This book is no longer in print in either the US or the UK, However, second-hand editions are reasonable easy to find - and it is not difficult to find quite nice first editions.And don't tell me it's love rival because the more I thought about it the more I feel sick that the main characters of this book are an 8 yo boy and an adult female cat.

The most impressive thing about this story was the wonderful passages of Peter learning to be a cat - how to lick himself, how to move through the world as a cat, how to fight as one. Even if you do not like cats, you will probably enjoy this - if you do, then you will relish the details. In short, a boy who yearns for a pet cat, but is not permitted one, suffers an accident, and wakes up to find himself in a cat's body.Of course, maybe I didn't read this book as a child because it does have some very dark, traumatic moments. I lent it to a Brit friend and he did have one negative comment: "Come, come, now, Mr Gallico -- since when has Glasgow been the capital of Scotland and Edinburgh 'Provincial'? Paul Gallico, remembered mainly for 'The Snow Goose', is a skilled observer of feline behaviour, and I had a lot of pleasure in re-visiting this reminder of my teenage years. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.