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Come Down, Cat!
The day is ending, night is falling, and Nicholas's cat won't come down. High on the roof she licks her paws while Nicholas worries about her up there all alone. How does he coax her into the safe, warm house? She doesn't even want to come down from the roof... or does she?
34 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2014
37 people want to read
About the author
Sonya Hartnett
42 books311 followersSonya Hartnett (also works under the pseudonym Cameron S. Redfern) is, or was, something of an Australian child prodigy author. She wrote her first novel at the age of thirteen, and had it published at fifteen. Her books have also been published in Europe and North America. Her novels have been published traditionally as young adult fiction, but her writing often crosses the divide and is also enjoyed by adults.
"I chose to narrate the story through a child because people like children, they WANT to like them," says Sonya Hartnett of THURSDAY'S CHILD, her brilliantly original coming-of-age story set during the Great Depression. "Harper [the young narrator] is the reason you get sucked into the characters. Even I, who like to distance myself from my characters, felt protective of her."
The acclaimed author of several award-winning young adult novels--the first written when she was just 13--Australian native Sonya Hartnett says she wrote THURSDAY'S CHILD in a mere three months. "It just pulled itself together," she says. "I'd wanted to set a story in the Depression for some time, in an isolated community that was strongly supportive. Once the dual ideas of the boy who tunneled and the young girl as narrator gelled, it almost wrote itself--I had the cast, I had the setting, I just said 'go.' " Accustomed to writing about edgy young adult characters, Sonya Hartnett says that identifying with a seven-year-old protagonist was a challenge at first. "I found her difficult to approach," she admits. "I'm not really used to children. But once I started, I found you could have fun with her: she could tell lies, she could deny the truth." Whereas most children know "only what adults want them to know," the author discovered she could bypass that limitation by "turning Harper into an eavesdropper and giving her older siblings to reveal realities."
In her second book with Candlewick Press, WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, Sonya Hartnett once again creates a portrait of childhood. This time the subject is Adrian, a nine-year-old boy living in the suburbs with his gran and Uncle. For Adrian, childhood is shaped by fear: his dread of quicksand, shopping centers, and self-combustion. Then one day, three neighborhood children vanish--an incident based on a real case in Australia in the 1960s--and Adrian comes to see just how tenuous his safety net is. In speaking about Adrian, the author provocatively reveals parallels between herself and her character. She says, "Adrian is me in many respects, and many of the things that happen to him happened to me."
Sonya Hartnett's consistently inspired writing has built her a legion of devotees. Of THURSDAY'S CHILD, Newbery Honor-winning author Carolyn Coman says, "Hartnett's beautifully rendered vision drew me in from the very start and carried me along, above and under ground, to the very end. This book amazed me." The achingly beautiful WHAT THE BIRDS SEE has just as quickly garnered critical acclaim. Notes PUBLISHERS WEEKLY in a starred review, "Hartnett again captures the ineffable fragility of childhood in this keenly observed tale. . . . Sophisticated readers will appreciate the work's acuity and poetic integrity." Sonya Hartnett's third young adult novel, STRIPES OF THE SIDESTEP WOLF was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
Sonya Hartnett lives near Melbourne, Australia. Her most recent novels are SURRENDER, a mesmerizing psychological thriller, and THE SILVER DONKEY, a gently told fable for middle-grade readers.
"I chose to narrate the story through a child because people like children, they WANT to like them," says Sonya Hartnett of THURSDAY'S CHILD, her brilliantly original coming-of-age story set during the Great Depression. "Harper [the young narrator] is the reason you get sucked into the characters. Even I, who like to distance myself from my characters, felt protective of her."
The acclaimed author of several award-winning young adult novels--the first written when she was just 13--Australian native Sonya Hartnett says she wrote THURSDAY'S CHILD in a mere three months. "It just pulled itself together," she says. "I'd wanted to set a story in the Depression for some time, in an isolated community that was strongly supportive. Once the dual ideas of the boy who tunneled and the young girl as narrator gelled, it almost wrote itself--I had the cast, I had the setting, I just said 'go.' " Accustomed to writing about edgy young adult characters, Sonya Hartnett says that identifying with a seven-year-old protagonist was a challenge at first. "I found her difficult to approach," she admits. "I'm not really used to children. But once I started, I found you could have fun with her: she could tell lies, she could deny the truth." Whereas most children know "only what adults want them to know," the author discovered she could bypass that limitation by "turning Harper into an eavesdropper and giving her older siblings to reveal realities."
In her second book with Candlewick Press, WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, Sonya Hartnett once again creates a portrait of childhood. This time the subject is Adrian, a nine-year-old boy living in the suburbs with his gran and Uncle. For Adrian, childhood is shaped by fear: his dread of quicksand, shopping centers, and self-combustion. Then one day, three neighborhood children vanish--an incident based on a real case in Australia in the 1960s--and Adrian comes to see just how tenuous his safety net is. In speaking about Adrian, the author provocatively reveals parallels between herself and her character. She says, "Adrian is me in many respects, and many of the things that happen to him happened to me."
Sonya Hartnett's consistently inspired writing has built her a legion of devotees. Of THURSDAY'S CHILD, Newbery Honor-winning author Carolyn Coman says, "Hartnett's beautifully rendered vision drew me in from the very start and carried me along, above and under ground, to the very end. This book amazed me." The achingly beautiful WHAT THE BIRDS SEE has just as quickly garnered critical acclaim. Notes PUBLISHERS WEEKLY in a starred review, "Hartnett again captures the ineffable fragility of childhood in this keenly observed tale. . . . Sophisticated readers will appreciate the work's acuity and poetic integrity." Sonya Hartnett's third young adult novel, STRIPES OF THE SIDESTEP WOLF was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
Sonya Hartnett lives near Melbourne, Australia. Her most recent novels are SURRENDER, a mesmerizing psychological thriller, and THE SILVER DONKEY, a gently told fable for middle-grade readers.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 2, 2012
A really delightfully old-fashioned story about a cat who will not come down from the roof of the protagonist's house and how Nichola recues her.
Liltling and whimsical illustrations (quite different from Masciullo's last collaboration with Harnett - The Boy and The Toy) lend this story a very European flavour. I imagine this is a book which will be sold into Europe and the Americas.
Shortlisted for CBCA Book of the Year - Early Childhood Catergory. Although I really enjoyed this book, and know that young readers will enjoy it too I think it made it onto the shortlist ahead of other more deserving books. And I wonder how much of that was because of the respect we all have for Hartnett's craft as a writer (which can't be denied - but shouldn't sway judges)
Liltling and whimsical illustrations (quite different from Masciullo's last collaboration with Harnett - The Boy and The Toy) lend this story a very European flavour. I imagine this is a book which will be sold into Europe and the Americas.
Shortlisted for CBCA Book of the Year - Early Childhood Catergory. Although I really enjoyed this book, and know that young readers will enjoy it too I think it made it onto the shortlist ahead of other more deserving books. And I wonder how much of that was because of the respect we all have for Hartnett's craft as a writer (which can't be denied - but shouldn't sway judges)
April 25, 2012
My little man read this for his 'reader' tonight and we both quite liked it, but I think that much of the subtle 'overcoming your fears' message was very lost to him - he liked the cat.
& I realllly didn't like the boy going up the 2-storey rickety ladder himself.
& I realllly didn't like the boy going up the 2-storey rickety ladder himself.
November 22, 2012
Lesson-y, kind of cute, definitely comforting for kids with li'l fears, but kind of a blah story in the entertainment department.
February 10, 2022
Come Down, Cat! Is a picture book with delightful illustrations. It’s evening and Nicholas’s cat is still on the roof. Nicholas climbs the rickety old ladder to help him down, but the cat refuses. Nicholas goes to sleep worried about his cat’s safety from nocturnal monsters. Just after midnight, it begins to rain heavily. Nicholas leaps out of bed, climbs the old ladder during a downpour, risks possible monsters, and brings his cat inside. They towel off in the kitchen instead of near the fire and go back to sleep in Nicholas’s bed, each thinking the other must be super brave.
Now look, the pictures are well done, it’s lovely that Nicholas loves cat so much, and I note the book was shortlisted for an award, but… we’ve read this every night for a fortnight and things are starting to bother me. Nicholas is a boy. Age is hard to tell by illustration but I’m guessing about 8? He has toys around his bed. The cat refers to him as a boy. He’s not even a teen. Where are his parents? Where are they when he climbs a giant broken ladder two storeys in his pyjamas just before bed? Where are they when he does it again in the middle of the night in the rain? When he sits with the cat in the kitchen and the open fire is visible in the next room? In the absence of parents, how does he live in this epic house that almost looks like a mini castle? Also, the roof the cat is on leads directly to two different balconies. The cat could very easily get off the roof onto either of these balconies and under the eaves for shelter. He does not need Nicholas to climb a dangerous ladder in inclement weather. Further, if Nicholas really does need to coax the cat down or help it, he could do so from a balcony much more safely.
It’s not a bad book. It’s a sweet story about the things we do for those we love. I’m just really worried for Nicholas’s safety and he is seriously getting played by that cat.
Now look, the pictures are well done, it’s lovely that Nicholas loves cat so much, and I note the book was shortlisted for an award, but… we’ve read this every night for a fortnight and things are starting to bother me. Nicholas is a boy. Age is hard to tell by illustration but I’m guessing about 8? He has toys around his bed. The cat refers to him as a boy. He’s not even a teen. Where are his parents? Where are they when he climbs a giant broken ladder two storeys in his pyjamas just before bed? Where are they when he does it again in the middle of the night in the rain? When he sits with the cat in the kitchen and the open fire is visible in the next room? In the absence of parents, how does he live in this epic house that almost looks like a mini castle? Also, the roof the cat is on leads directly to two different balconies. The cat could very easily get off the roof onto either of these balconies and under the eaves for shelter. He does not need Nicholas to climb a dangerous ladder in inclement weather. Further, if Nicholas really does need to coax the cat down or help it, he could do so from a balcony much more safely.
It’s not a bad book. It’s a sweet story about the things we do for those we love. I’m just really worried for Nicholas’s safety and he is seriously getting played by that cat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2020
This is my favourite book so far to read to my 15 month old. The illustrations are beautiful and you really get into the drama of it as you read. It's especially fun making the cat voice... "Marl!!" My son adores it and asks for it almost every night before bed. Would absolutely recommend for young toddlers who are into books.
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April 7, 2020It's a picture book about a cat, I was always going to love it. But this one makes nice use of descriptive language and onomatopoeia and could be a jumping-off point for discussing what it means to be brave or fearless, so there's some extra reasons to love it. A beautiful and emotional read, as children's picture books go.
December 16, 2019
El extraño mundo de los gatos y la increíble capacidad para adaptarse se muestran en este cuento donde la valentía es protagonista.
October 21, 2020
The cat doesn't want to come off the roof but then it rains one night and he ends up bringing her inside.
January 12, 2023
Sweet story about a cat and a little boy who overcame their fears. Perfect for my year 3 class.
November 6, 2020
“¡Baja Gata!” son de esos libros que te hacen sentir que la historia podría haber sido tuya, y por lo demás, más de alguna vez me pasó que tuve que bajar a mi gata del techo de mi casa. Pero la virtud no erradica en eso, sino en contar la historia de un niño (una historia que podría ser real) según los ojos de él, demostrando cada uno de los obstáculos existentes. Es ahí la virtud del libro, porque no sólo representa mágicamente cosas simples de la vida, sino el expresar tanto con una simple onomatopeya, debido que una de las protagonistas, la gata, sólo dice miau. Es ahí donde la niña o niño se encariña tanto con el libro, porque una simple palabra da tanto significado para ellos que interpretan ese mauillido como si fuera una respuesta de una oración más compleja. Un libro perfecto para las y los principantes en la lectura, tanto por su historia, como por su bella ilustración.
March 11, 2019
I picked up this book because it had The Children's Book Council of Australia Honour book sticker. The story was just so so. Nothing too exciting or page turning but it does have a beginning, middle and an end.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews