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Temple Cat
The little cat living in a temple in the ancient city of Neba has everything he could wish for. But from his perch in a courtyard tree, he can see the world beyond the temple walls. There, children play in the streets. There, other cats roam free. So one night the temple cat slips out. During his long, hard journey, he lives as a cat, not a god - and finds, at the edge of the sea, his true heart's desire.
Author Biography: Andrew Clements is the author of many books for children, including, for Clarion, BRIGHT CHRISTMAS and WORKSHOP. A full-time writer, he lives in Westborough, Massachusetts.
Born in New Hampshire and raised in Vermont, Kate Kiesler began painting at an early age. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and now paints and illustrates full-time. Kate paints with oils, and her rich style has been highly praised. Kate Kiesler has illustrated numerous picture books, including THE GREAT FROG RACE AND OTHER POEMS. She lives in Frisco, Colorado.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
3 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Clements
140 books2,231 followersI was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
March 13, 2021
This book was such an adorable example of a historical fiction picture book. As a cat lover, I was very intrigued to dive into this story. It takes the perspective of a cat who lives in a temple in Egypt and is treated like a God. He has everything he could ever want, and has servants to do anything he wishes for before he can even show that he wants it. However, everyday he perches on a tree outside and is able to see a world beyond the temple walls where there are other people and cats who get to roam freely. One day, he decides to slip away and discover the world beyond what he has always had and discovers that maybe having everything and anything he could ever want might not be everything there is to life, after all.
Temple Cat would be an awesome book to implement in a 3-5 grades discussion about religion (specifically including temples), but also potentially as a lesson tied into that there is more to life than material objects. In this book, it is important for students to understand that the cat was given and served everything he could wish for, but all he really wanted was freedom to do as he pleased without the control or interference of others. An activity which I would love to include in addition to this story is a story map graphic organizer. I think that this would be a great book for students to connect to plot, setting, problem and solution. This would tie in really well because this book demonstrated each of these parts evidently within the story and so students could identify them with clarity.
This was a book which I loved because it encouraged the idea of living life to the fullest, and how that looks different for everyone. I think that a lot of people hold the idea that once you reach a certain amount of money/ riches, everything else will fall into place and happiness will follow you. This story challenges that thought and shows that even when you have everything, you can still be missing something that can't be bought or given to you, which is just living your life by what makes you happy. This is a WOW book due to the message it offers and how the cat's journey demonstrates a self- journey and route to internal happiness.
Temple Cat would be an awesome book to implement in a 3-5 grades discussion about religion (specifically including temples), but also potentially as a lesson tied into that there is more to life than material objects. In this book, it is important for students to understand that the cat was given and served everything he could wish for, but all he really wanted was freedom to do as he pleased without the control or interference of others. An activity which I would love to include in addition to this story is a story map graphic organizer. I think that this would be a great book for students to connect to plot, setting, problem and solution. This would tie in really well because this book demonstrated each of these parts evidently within the story and so students could identify them with clarity.
This was a book which I loved because it encouraged the idea of living life to the fullest, and how that looks different for everyone. I think that a lot of people hold the idea that once you reach a certain amount of money/ riches, everything else will fall into place and happiness will follow you. This story challenges that thought and shows that even when you have everything, you can still be missing something that can't be bought or given to you, which is just living your life by what makes you happy. This is a WOW book due to the message it offers and how the cat's journey demonstrates a self- journey and route to internal happiness.
August 28, 2018
I guess this is an older title from the 90s, but the book appeared to be brand new to our library and the artwork quickly caught my attention. Poor spoiled little temple cat is spoon-fed everything in life, but all he really wants is to be free and loved. So he escapes his temple and explores the world on his own. The beautiful illustrations were rendered in oil paint.
For this and more #kidlit, #mglit, and #yalit book reviews, please visit my blog: The Miller Memo.
For this and more #kidlit, #mglit, and #yalit book reviews, please visit my blog: The Miller Memo.
December 3, 2025
I got this book from the library and boy were my 2 cats sniffing at it!! Another cat must have been reading it before us!
A cat in Egypt lives in a temple and is treated as a god by a host of servants. However, the cat's ideas of happiness don't quite match up to the servants', and the cat wants to be more playful and free and less pampered and isolated. One night he sneaks out and after 3 days of roaming meets a fisherman's family that feed him fresh fish (like a normal cat, rather than roasted on a gold dish) and pet and snuggle him.
I suppose this is meant as a happily ever after, but there was no emotional tone to the book for me. Something about the writing just didn't land. And I can't help thinking how extremely distraught all the temple people must be thinking they have displeased their god and wondering what happened to the cat.
For once I was disappointed by the illustrations. I felt the color palette was boring and there was way too much empty space. Maybe it's meant to reflect the desert setting, but it just cane out lackluster. The little cat smile at the end though was sweet and authentic. The best illustration was the cat in the moonlight licking its paw.
A cat in Egypt lives in a temple and is treated as a god by a host of servants. However, the cat's ideas of happiness don't quite match up to the servants', and the cat wants to be more playful and free and less pampered and isolated. One night he sneaks out and after 3 days of roaming meets a fisherman's family that feed him fresh fish (like a normal cat, rather than roasted on a gold dish) and pet and snuggle him.
I suppose this is meant as a happily ever after, but there was no emotional tone to the book for me. Something about the writing just didn't land. And I can't help thinking how extremely distraught all the temple people must be thinking they have displeased their god and wondering what happened to the cat.
For once I was disappointed by the illustrations. I felt the color palette was boring and there was way too much empty space. Maybe it's meant to reflect the desert setting, but it just cane out lackluster. The little cat smile at the end though was sweet and authentic. The best illustration was the cat in the moonlight licking its paw.
February 16, 2022
A little cat lived in a temple and was treated like a god. He could see many things that went on beyond the temple walls from his perch. He was such an important cat that everything was done for him by his servants. His life was boring. He wished that he could escape the temple and explore things for himself. He finally escapes the temple and starts to explore. He realizes how nice it is to do things for himself. He is so happy to be free. He realizes how it feels to be a normal cat. The book overall was short and to the point. I would recommend this to grades second and under. My second grader loved this book.
September 17, 2017
This book had some prime cat illustrations. 10/10 would recommend.
November 13, 2017
3.5 stars; very sweet and simple.
July 30, 2019
This is a short, simple book that I think would be a good addition to the shelf of anyone with children. It teaches you a little bit about the worship of cats and has a sweet ending.
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August 6, 2021A pampered and honored cat wants nothing more than to be an ordinary cat. This book is an interesting look at the Egyptian cultural fascination with cats and the animal instinctual drive.
December 8, 2022
The Egyptians used to worship cats at the temples, and this is the life of a temple kitty. The illustrations are very beautiful.
February 16, 2023
Kinda cute. Much simpler than I realized when I picked it up -- better for 2nd grader to read to me than for me to read aloud.
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July 4, 2012Temple Cat, by Andrew Clements, is a children's book with a lexile of 400 so it is best for primary aged readers. The main character in this book is a cat who is treated like a king in an Egyptian temple. The point of view of this book is third person because it is told through someone as if they were watching the cat. The setting of this book is in ancient Neba in a temple, and the land surrounding the temple. The plot of this book is that there is a cat who lives in a Neban temple and he is treated like a king. Every time he tries to do something for himself one of his servants rushes over and does it for him. This is so because the Egyptians worshiped cats like gods. The cat grows tried of his routine and he just wants to be like every other cat and do things for himself. He has a desire for freedom and to be loved. One day the cat sneaks out of the temple at night, and goes to the shore and catches a fish for the first time by himself and he finally feels like a real cat. The next morning he finds some children to play with and they absolutely love him and he finally feels like a real cat. My personal reaction was that I could actually feel the cat's pain of just wanting to be a regular cat and not doted on every second. I thought that since the author was able to make me feel this then this book was well written and that is the exact reason why I would recommend it.
Concluding statement: Be who you want to be always.
Concluding statement: Be who you want to be always.
July 18, 2015
I really enjoyed this picture book about an Ancient Egyptian cat who lives in a temple as the living avatar of a god. The cat is surrounded by luxury, but feels discontented and trapped. Finally, the cat decides to escape and finds happiness playing with the children of a fisherman.
The story is a little simplistic and the lesson overdone, but they’re really only a vehicle anyway. What carries this book is the gorgeous artwork and the introduction to Ancient Egypt.
In particular, I was very impressed with how expressive the cat’s body language is in the pictures. It’s clear that Kiesler is very familiar with felines!
Unfortunately, my son wasn’t taken with the book. He tolerated a reading of it, but was eager to jump to something he found more exciting once I was done. Oh well, we’ll try again!
The story is a little simplistic and the lesson overdone, but they’re really only a vehicle anyway. What carries this book is the gorgeous artwork and the introduction to Ancient Egypt.
In particular, I was very impressed with how expressive the cat’s body language is in the pictures. It’s clear that Kiesler is very familiar with felines!
Unfortunately, my son wasn’t taken with the book. He tolerated a reading of it, but was eager to jump to something he found more exciting once I was done. Oh well, we’ll try again!
October 29, 2015
The Temple Cat is a Historical Fiction picture book. This book is about a cat that lived in a temple in the city of Neba. The cat was the lord of the temple and the people worship the cat has a god. The cat had servants that served him daily. The cat liked being in the temple but he wanted to be free like other cats to roam around and have fun like a normal cat. One night, the cat slips out of the temple in which he had a long journey and found his true heart’s desire at the edge of the sea. The pictures in the book displays a heartfelt cat, children, people and a beautiful temple. I would recommend this book to children ages 6 to 9 years old because a person could have everything they always wanted but still is not content with their circumstances.
September 2, 2013
I got this recommendation from the Ancient Egypt section of Rebecca Rupp Resources (http://www.rebeccaruppresources.com/?...). Cute, short, but with surprisingly beautiful language, this book really captured my kids' attention, particularly that of my 3.5 year old son, who requested I read it three times in a row, and several times since then! The overall message - that the pampered life isn't all it's cracked up to be - is well-played, and the ending is very happy. :)
April 21, 2013
This is a nice piece of narrative poetry about a cat from what seems to be ancient Egypt. The cat is worshipped as a god in a temple, but doesn't enjoy the life of constant praise he leads. Therefore, one night he slips away to see the rest of the world and finds true happiness as a poor family's cat by the sea. Dissimilar to my earlier Clements reads, but still very good.
September 5, 2013
The Temple Cat is waited on hand and foot, worshipped and adored, and wants for nothing. He is worshipped as a god.But, all he wants to do is play and be loved be a real family. He wanders out of the temple one night, travels far, and finds what he has been looking for...a loving family to keep him warm and safe.
February 27, 2011
Nice book with a lesson about what it really means "to have it all." The last page explained my 7 year old's love for this one: "And then, before the cat even know/ what his dearest wish was,/ it came true./ He played with the children,/ and they loved him."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2015
I liked this book because of the illustrations in it. This book is great for showing kids that having all that you want is not always the greatest and that sometimes just the smallest things make for the best in life. The story is great as well, the words are very descriptive.
April 15, 2008
A cute story with facts about ancient Egypt about a cat who justs wants to be like other cats.
November 26, 2011
This is an ok book. I would use this book to talk about how living the "priveledged" life is not always the best. I would talk about relying on yourself is important.
April 8, 2025
I put in Cat's Claw and got this one I did not read this book nor am I planning on reading this book.
May 9, 2015
Very short, just a couple sentences on each page, but the illustrations are beautiful and sweet and perfect for this cat-loving kid. Read aloud by Grandpa Jeff.
March 7, 2023
A revered cat finds a real home.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2026
I expected more art and story.
February 29, 2016
Cute little story about an Egyptian god cat learning what it means to be an actual cat.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews