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Easter Cat
Although she has always wanted a cat, Millie is never allowed to keep one until she finds one next to her Easter basket.
128 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1971
50 people want to read
About the author
Meindert De Jong
44 books78 followersMeindert De Jong was an award-winning author of children's books. He was born in the village of Wierum, of the province of Friesland, in the Netherlands.
De Jong immigrated to the United States with his family in 1914. He attended Dutch Calvinist secondary schools and Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered the University of Chicago, but left without graduating.
He held various jobs during the Great Depression, and it was at the suggestion of a local librarian that he began writing children's books. His first book The Big Goose and the Little White Duck was published in 1938.
He wrote several more books before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, serving in China. After the war he resumed writing, and for several years resided in Mexico. He returned for a time to Michigan. After settling in North Carolina, he returned to Michigan for the final years of his life.
De Jong immigrated to the United States with his family in 1914. He attended Dutch Calvinist secondary schools and Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered the University of Chicago, but left without graduating.
He held various jobs during the Great Depression, and it was at the suggestion of a local librarian that he began writing children's books. His first book The Big Goose and the Little White Duck was published in 1938.
He wrote several more books before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, serving in China. After the war he resumed writing, and for several years resided in Mexico. He returned for a time to Michigan. After settling in North Carolina, he returned to Michigan for the final years of his life.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 26, 2023
If you're looking for a holiday story from a Newbery author, you'll have by far the most luck finding Christmas ones. Easter is pretty far down the list; in fact, you might not find anything specifically related to Easter by a Newbery author unless you know to seek out 1971's The Easter Cat by 1955 Newbery Medalist Meindert DeJong. The final Newbery total tallied by Meindert DeJong in his career was an almost unprecedented five—four Honors and one Medal winner—and his writing makes it easy to see why he was so often recognized as one of the best in American children's literature. Unlike the majority of his contemporaries, Meindert DeJong doesn't shy from using suspense as a story's main seasoning, masterfully crafting his main characters' situations to build and maintain that suspense. In The Easter Cat, the tension is predicated on young Millicent's circumstance of knowing she can never have the cat she desires. Millicent loves little kittens and longs to care for them, but her mother has a hair-trigger allergy to anything feline, and can't abide a cat in her vicinity. Even when Millicent tries to circumvent this depressing situation by stealing away to an abandoned warehouse to feed and play with the stray cats who hang out there, her mother catches wind of it and orders Millicent never to return to the isolated building. Vagrants and mischief makers could be on the prowl, and it isn't safe for a girl Millicent's age to wander off by herself. So Millicent morosely continues her cat-less existence, with little hope of change.
Until, that is, one wee Easter morning, when a fracas between some cats outside the house awakens Millicent. When she goes downstairs to look around, excited to think what surprises Easter morning will bring, a little ball of blue fur nuzzles up to Millicent. It's a kitten, azure of both eye and fur, and it takes an immediate shine to the only young girl of the house. Millicent marvels at how crafty her grown brothers, Dave and Carl, had to be to sneak the new cat into her Easter basket last night without her catching on to what they were doing. Somehow they even restrained the kitten from meowing, so she wouldn't hear it before morning! What wonderful, clever brothers she has, to obtain a cat that won't trigger her mother's allergies, and what a gracious mother she has to consent to Millicent's keeping the animal!
It doesn't take long for Millicent to realize the kitten she dubs "Blue Angel" is no Easter gift; in fact, her mother and brothers must not be aware it is in the house at all. The basement window Millicent left unlocked earlier after handing a jumprope through to the girl from next-door...it would have been an inviting sight, indeed, for a baby cat seeking refuge from a larger, meaner feline. Blue Angel isn't her cat at all. As soon as her mother wakes and discovers this walking, purring collection of allergens sojourning under her roof, she's sure to order it removed without delay. After living with waning hope for so long that she would ever have a cat of her own, Millicent, for a few blissful minutes, had believed Blue Angel was her little miracle. The infant kitten, too soft and small to defend itself against the hardened alley cats of the area, could never navigate the big, bad world without Millicent's help. The dream of sharing her home and love with this gorgeous blue creature had nestled so comfortably, so warmly in her heart, but that dream is evaporating with the morning dew, and there isn't anything Millicent can do to slow its demise. As soon as her family starts their day, it's just a matter of time before Blue Angel is found and sent away. Unless...
What about the secret passage Millicent uncovered yesterday, within the planter and under the old phonograph on the front porch? The skinny, dark passageway led under the floorboards and past a dividing partition to an uncompleted under-area of the house Millicent had never seen. Maybe her family has no idea it exists. As Millicent weighs her options, desperate to keep Blue Angel from being wrested away, her brand-new cat's loud meows threaten to bring the whole house awake before Millicent can take action. Now there's definitely no safe place to tarry and come up with a better solution. It's the secret passage under the porch or nothing, and letting Blue Angel be torn from her arms and given away can't be an option. If there's a chance in a million of keeping her kitten then Millicent is going to take it, but asking for even those long odds may be a stretch. Life is rough when you're the sole kid in a house of grownups who can't understand the way you think and what is most important to you. But miracles happen, especially at Easter, and the joy Blue Angel's advent brings has to soften the adults' hearts at least a little. Can Millicent get her mother and brothers to see that she needs her cat even more than the cat needs her?
Like Meindert DeJong's The House of Sixty Fathers, The Easter Cat is notable for its high suspense compared to most novels for this age group, particularly from the era that produced it. This isn't a typical easygoing narrative that won't threaten the reader's comfort zone; it gets intense, as the author skillfully funnels the events of the story to create strong empathy for Millicent's conundrum. How would we feel if we waited most of our lives to invest our loving, caring energy in one smaller then ourselves, doubting the chance would ever come; then in a single beautiful, exciting night our wish were granted, only to be snatched away with the unveiling of morning light? This is the consequence Millicent faces if she's caught with Blue Angel, but is running away and not seeing her family again any kind of alternative? There's a reason Millicent's brother gave her the nickname "Millidollar". It sounds like a backhanded compliment when it's explained, that a "Millicent is only one thousandth of a cent and I am easily worth one thousandth of a dollar", but don't backhanded compliments from a brother usually express more than their surface measure? Methinks Millicent would miss her brothers something awful if she went on the lam with Blue Angel, and her mother even more.
The most meaningful sections of The Easter Cat come when Millicent finds a listening ear to relate her story to, someone ready to hear why it's so crucial that she own a cat in spite of the problems it would cause her family. Millicent explains her devotedness to kittens: "I've always loved them, I guess. It—it's because they're strays and they're lost. They're little! I guess that's it—they're so little to be lost... I can't help it, I get all sort of soft inside when I see them... I pick them up, and I shouldn't, because then I can't seem to put them down again—they're lost and starved, and they don't belong to anybody, and they need somebody." I know what you mean, Millicent. I've felt exactly the same way. I think the majority of people have at one time or another, be it toward cats or some other form of helpless creature you know needs you. How does one walk away from being needed by a lovable creature? Millicent's family has never understood her compassion for cats, until the discerning individual she pours her heart out to is able to distill her feelings into a cocktail her mother and brothers can ingest. "Have you ever thought...how it must be to be a youngest child in a family of nothing but grown-ups? In the whole household there's nothing littler than you, nothing needs you. Then there is a handy alley where there are sometimes lost cats that need you." Millicent's siblings are distraught over her Easter morning disappearance, and that makes the speaker's next point hit home all the harder: "Forgive me... but I want to slam it home to you right now, before you're over your scare—as you will be, the moment I produce Millicent. Right now let's look at it, for once, from her side. How would you feel if I suddenly produced her, but told you, 'Here she is—but you can't keep her'? Yet that's what you asked of her every time she found a kitten to love in her aloneness..." These are powerful sentiments, and though we don't encounter them until near the end, I believe they're the foundation upon which The Easter Cat is steadily constructed. Were it not for the sections I've quoted in this paragraph, I wouldn't have rounded my two-and-a-half star rating up to three. But because they are part of the story, The Easter Cat is a novel I won't have difficulty remembering. It will always be a part of me.
Meindert DeJong is in a class by himself, his works having garnered way more awards than most kids' authors. I love when Maurice Sendak illustrates for DeJong, but DeJong works quite well by himself or with other illustrators, such as Lillian Hoban, who drew the pictures for this book. The Easter Cat is by no means Meindert DeJong's legacy (that distinction primarily goes to The Wheel on the School and Hurry Home, Candy), but it's a sound, valuable juvenile novel that insightfully handles familiar subjects. I liked it a lot, and have no qualms about recommending it. If the ever-elusive Easter story from a Newbery author is what you're after, let The Easter Cat be your go-to reading experience. I think you'll be happy with the choice.
Until, that is, one wee Easter morning, when a fracas between some cats outside the house awakens Millicent. When she goes downstairs to look around, excited to think what surprises Easter morning will bring, a little ball of blue fur nuzzles up to Millicent. It's a kitten, azure of both eye and fur, and it takes an immediate shine to the only young girl of the house. Millicent marvels at how crafty her grown brothers, Dave and Carl, had to be to sneak the new cat into her Easter basket last night without her catching on to what they were doing. Somehow they even restrained the kitten from meowing, so she wouldn't hear it before morning! What wonderful, clever brothers she has, to obtain a cat that won't trigger her mother's allergies, and what a gracious mother she has to consent to Millicent's keeping the animal!
It doesn't take long for Millicent to realize the kitten she dubs "Blue Angel" is no Easter gift; in fact, her mother and brothers must not be aware it is in the house at all. The basement window Millicent left unlocked earlier after handing a jumprope through to the girl from next-door...it would have been an inviting sight, indeed, for a baby cat seeking refuge from a larger, meaner feline. Blue Angel isn't her cat at all. As soon as her mother wakes and discovers this walking, purring collection of allergens sojourning under her roof, she's sure to order it removed without delay. After living with waning hope for so long that she would ever have a cat of her own, Millicent, for a few blissful minutes, had believed Blue Angel was her little miracle. The infant kitten, too soft and small to defend itself against the hardened alley cats of the area, could never navigate the big, bad world without Millicent's help. The dream of sharing her home and love with this gorgeous blue creature had nestled so comfortably, so warmly in her heart, but that dream is evaporating with the morning dew, and there isn't anything Millicent can do to slow its demise. As soon as her family starts their day, it's just a matter of time before Blue Angel is found and sent away. Unless...
What about the secret passage Millicent uncovered yesterday, within the planter and under the old phonograph on the front porch? The skinny, dark passageway led under the floorboards and past a dividing partition to an uncompleted under-area of the house Millicent had never seen. Maybe her family has no idea it exists. As Millicent weighs her options, desperate to keep Blue Angel from being wrested away, her brand-new cat's loud meows threaten to bring the whole house awake before Millicent can take action. Now there's definitely no safe place to tarry and come up with a better solution. It's the secret passage under the porch or nothing, and letting Blue Angel be torn from her arms and given away can't be an option. If there's a chance in a million of keeping her kitten then Millicent is going to take it, but asking for even those long odds may be a stretch. Life is rough when you're the sole kid in a house of grownups who can't understand the way you think and what is most important to you. But miracles happen, especially at Easter, and the joy Blue Angel's advent brings has to soften the adults' hearts at least a little. Can Millicent get her mother and brothers to see that she needs her cat even more than the cat needs her?
Like Meindert DeJong's The House of Sixty Fathers, The Easter Cat is notable for its high suspense compared to most novels for this age group, particularly from the era that produced it. This isn't a typical easygoing narrative that won't threaten the reader's comfort zone; it gets intense, as the author skillfully funnels the events of the story to create strong empathy for Millicent's conundrum. How would we feel if we waited most of our lives to invest our loving, caring energy in one smaller then ourselves, doubting the chance would ever come; then in a single beautiful, exciting night our wish were granted, only to be snatched away with the unveiling of morning light? This is the consequence Millicent faces if she's caught with Blue Angel, but is running away and not seeing her family again any kind of alternative? There's a reason Millicent's brother gave her the nickname "Millidollar". It sounds like a backhanded compliment when it's explained, that a "Millicent is only one thousandth of a cent and I am easily worth one thousandth of a dollar", but don't backhanded compliments from a brother usually express more than their surface measure? Methinks Millicent would miss her brothers something awful if she went on the lam with Blue Angel, and her mother even more.
The most meaningful sections of The Easter Cat come when Millicent finds a listening ear to relate her story to, someone ready to hear why it's so crucial that she own a cat in spite of the problems it would cause her family. Millicent explains her devotedness to kittens: "I've always loved them, I guess. It—it's because they're strays and they're lost. They're little! I guess that's it—they're so little to be lost... I can't help it, I get all sort of soft inside when I see them... I pick them up, and I shouldn't, because then I can't seem to put them down again—they're lost and starved, and they don't belong to anybody, and they need somebody." I know what you mean, Millicent. I've felt exactly the same way. I think the majority of people have at one time or another, be it toward cats or some other form of helpless creature you know needs you. How does one walk away from being needed by a lovable creature? Millicent's family has never understood her compassion for cats, until the discerning individual she pours her heart out to is able to distill her feelings into a cocktail her mother and brothers can ingest. "Have you ever thought...how it must be to be a youngest child in a family of nothing but grown-ups? In the whole household there's nothing littler than you, nothing needs you. Then there is a handy alley where there are sometimes lost cats that need you." Millicent's siblings are distraught over her Easter morning disappearance, and that makes the speaker's next point hit home all the harder: "Forgive me... but I want to slam it home to you right now, before you're over your scare—as you will be, the moment I produce Millicent. Right now let's look at it, for once, from her side. How would you feel if I suddenly produced her, but told you, 'Here she is—but you can't keep her'? Yet that's what you asked of her every time she found a kitten to love in her aloneness..." These are powerful sentiments, and though we don't encounter them until near the end, I believe they're the foundation upon which The Easter Cat is steadily constructed. Were it not for the sections I've quoted in this paragraph, I wouldn't have rounded my two-and-a-half star rating up to three. But because they are part of the story, The Easter Cat is a novel I won't have difficulty remembering. It will always be a part of me.
Meindert DeJong is in a class by himself, his works having garnered way more awards than most kids' authors. I love when Maurice Sendak illustrates for DeJong, but DeJong works quite well by himself or with other illustrators, such as Lillian Hoban, who drew the pictures for this book. The Easter Cat is by no means Meindert DeJong's legacy (that distinction primarily goes to The Wheel on the School and Hurry Home, Candy), but it's a sound, valuable juvenile novel that insightfully handles familiar subjects. I liked it a lot, and have no qualms about recommending it. If the ever-elusive Easter story from a Newbery author is what you're after, let The Easter Cat be your go-to reading experience. I think you'll be happy with the choice.
April 22, 2025
Wouldn't it be great to find a Siamese kitten in your Easter basket? Millicent definitely thought so, but then remembered her mom's serious cat allergy. Perhaps it would be best to hide that kitten in order to keep it close by as long as possible.
I read this Easter-themed title with J. When we finished it was time to choose our favorite chapter. For J it was "The Big Policeman" about what happens when a Detective Waters comes to the house to help look for Millicent. J loved the unique way he held his flashlight.🔦
My choice was "Olives Are Eggs" when Millicent discovers that malnourished kitten. How did she know he was hungry? He had eaten all the olives in her basket. Why were there olives instead of eggs in her basket? You'll have to read the book for yourself and find out.😉
I read this Easter-themed title with J. When we finished it was time to choose our favorite chapter. For J it was "The Big Policeman" about what happens when a Detective Waters comes to the house to help look for Millicent. J loved the unique way he held his flashlight.🔦
My choice was "Olives Are Eggs" when Millicent discovers that malnourished kitten. How did she know he was hungry? He had eaten all the olives in her basket. Why were there olives instead of eggs in her basket? You'll have to read the book for yourself and find out.😉
February 17, 2022
Not much like others by the author, and imo too light & yet too melodramatic... too implausible. Young me would have scoffed, too. Reads like he wrote it with an individual in mind, perhaps a favorite grandchild is in a situation similar to Mimi's.
Not Hoban's best work on the art, either. I'm undecided whether her illustrations fit the tone of the story.
However I will continue to read whatever I can find by him.
Not Hoban's best work on the art, either. I'm undecided whether her illustrations fit the tone of the story.
However I will continue to read whatever I can find by him.
July 1, 2019
A lovely story about a girl and a cat. Meindert DeJong understood children very well. His stories could do with a revival.
December 26, 2020
Note: This rating comes from my 12 year old self, in a recently discovered school assignment.
August 25, 2023
I love cats and the kitten was so cute.
Read
April 15, 2011This is another one of my 'forgotten' books. I could remember liking this book a lot as a kid, could remember some very specific details. Little girl, loves cats, but her mom is allergic so she can't have one, finds a siamese cat, then hides under a creepy porch with it so her mom can't make her give it up.
I'm pretty sure that I read this when I was young and obsessed with wanting a cat even though my dad hated cats. Of course, that didn't last and I got one for my ninth birthday and now we have a billion cats and it's all a bit crazy. SO. These were some formative years.
After successfully finding Oh Honestly, Angela!from piecemeal memories, I went after this one. Did a google books search and found only an excerpt from Library Journal or similar with a review, gave the date as 1971 and the girl's name as Millicent, but no author or book title due to what google books lets you read. So I went to WorldCat, set the date, language, and juvenile, used cat as a keyword, and slogged through 400 results until I saw "The Easter Cat" and thought...that could be it...I didn't remember Easter at all. Amazon gave me the cover and a description and yes. This is my book. Philly library even has it! I can't wait to re-read it, even though it wasn't great literature in the first place and who knows how it will hold up.
I'm pretty sure that I read this when I was young and obsessed with wanting a cat even though my dad hated cats. Of course, that didn't last and I got one for my ninth birthday and now we have a billion cats and it's all a bit crazy. SO. These were some formative years.
After successfully finding Oh Honestly, Angela!from piecemeal memories, I went after this one. Did a google books search and found only an excerpt from Library Journal or similar with a review, gave the date as 1971 and the girl's name as Millicent, but no author or book title due to what google books lets you read. So I went to WorldCat, set the date, language, and juvenile, used cat as a keyword, and slogged through 400 results until I saw "The Easter Cat" and thought...that could be it...I didn't remember Easter at all. Amazon gave me the cover and a description and yes. This is my book. Philly library even has it! I can't wait to re-read it, even though it wasn't great literature in the first place and who knows how it will hold up.
March 4, 2010
One of my favorite children's authors but not one of his best books. (We're only reading this one because my daughter found it on her shelf and it had a cat on the cover. She'll read anything about cats.) It's the story of a lonely little girl who desperately wants to keep a kitten she finds on Easter morning. She surprises her family with a (misguided) show of bravery and strong feelings and thus earns their attention and respect.
Favorite books by this author (who, incidentally, was a friend of my mom's family when she was growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan) are: Journey from Peppermint Street, Hurry Home Candy (first book I remember making me cry as a child), and The Wheel on the School. Mr. DeJong excels in describing genuine emotions and reactions (the internal landscape) of a child.
Favorite books by this author (who, incidentally, was a friend of my mom's family when she was growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan) are: Journey from Peppermint Street, Hurry Home Candy (first book I remember making me cry as a child), and The Wheel on the School. Mr. DeJong excels in describing genuine emotions and reactions (the internal landscape) of a child.
April 15, 2016
When I was much younger, I loved this story. I loved the relationship that occurred between this little girl and her cat. I felt for her as she had to hide her cat from her mom. Overall from what I remember about the book, the character hides her cat in the upstairs attic and feed it up there. Anyways, It's a good read for young girls and a great story.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews