The Boy Who Drew Cats

by Anushka Ravishankar, Christine Kastl (Illustrator)

Akiro draws only cats . . . cats, cats, and more cats! This artistic tendency leads him to an adventure one day—an adventure that will change his life. Go on a journey in this folktale retold by Anushka Ravishankar with intricate illustrations by Christine Kastl in watercolors and ink on rice paper.

Genres: Picture Books, Audiobook, Cats, Childrens, Fiction, Folklore, Animals

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2014

About the author

Anushka Ravishankar, a mathematics graduate, has made a name for herself internationally as an Indian children’s writer, with over 10 books of verse, fiction and non-fiction. Her special talent is in the area of nonsense verse, where she brilliantly adapts this difficult genre to Indian English usage, without a false note. Anushka Ravishankar can be said to have pioneered the Indian English nonsense verse form and brought it to international attention. She recently returned from a UK tour with Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, at the Children’s Bookshow.

from http://www.tarabooks.com/about/authors/

Reviews

[Esraa · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصة للأطفال عن "اكيرو" الذي يحب رسم القطط، القطط وفقط.
كان فاشل وغريب إلى أن حدثت له معجزة بسبب موهبته.
تشبه كثيرا قصص موراكامي. الموسيقى اليابانية كانت لطيفة لطف نادر.
الراوي كان دمه خفيف جدا.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indian children's author Anushka Ravishankar retells a traditional Japanese folktale in this engaging picture-book. A young boy with a penchant for drawing cats at all times, Akiro is the despair of his parents. Eventually they send him to the local priest to be educated, but eventually this man concludes that Akiro doesn't have the right temperament. Traveling to another village, the boy finds a seemingly abandoned temple, and draws cats all over the rice paper screens, before going to sleep in a cupboard. Overnight, the cats come to life and slay the rat-demon haunting the temple, thereby restoring it to its owners. Turning down an offer to be trained as a replacement for the head priest of this second temple, Akiro continues with his cat-drawing ways, eventually becoming a famous artist...

The story contained in The Boy Who Drew Cats is a well-known one, and I have seen it retold many times. Here in the west, the most famous retelling is probably that done by Lafcadio Hearn, although I have also encountered it in Natalia Belting's collection, Cat Tales , as well as in picture-book versions by Margaret Hodges and Aki Sogabe, Arthur Levine and Frédéric Clément, and David Johnson. I enjoyed Anushka Ravishankar's telling here, and appreciated German illustrator Christine Kastl's accompanying artwork. Having read a number of American versions of this Japanese tale, it was interesting to encounter an Indian one, demonstrating how folklore travels, and how appealing it can be, across cultural and geographic boundaries. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, as well as cat-lovers.

[Debi Cates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today was fun!

I discovered we can put books "on hold" at our local public library easily via online access. Incidentally, I have the Chrome extension that interfaces with GoodReads so that when I look up a book it searches if my local library has copies. It let's me know in the top right hand corner of the GR book page. I've also set the extension to check Open Library too. It's a sweet set up.

So, today when I took the Littles (my grand daughters, ages 6 and 8) to our the library three books were waiting for us that I had preselected and put on hold. (Besides this book, we also had waiting There's A Bear On My Chair and Halibut Jackson. I'll be reviewing those too.) The Littles immediately sat down at the center coloring table and we began reading the three waiting books.

Miss L, the 8 year old, loves cats and loves drawing, asked me to read this one to her while she relaxed and colored. As we went along in the story, I was glad that she is sensitive to neurodivergence, thanks to her mother who has been educating her about that, and it seems to me that the boy who drew cats very well might have been "on the spectrum," as they say. It's a great prism that I am glad has come to light, allowing us to view unusual behaviors in a positive and understanding way and I noticed that Miss L didn't ask a lot of questions about his unusual behavior probably for that reason. We did have a conversation about the paper partitions that is traditional in Japan, though.

There was one scary part. We can't shield children from death and violence. The human-sized rat that was terrorizing a temple was killed by the boy's drawn cats. There was depiction of blood. But we talked about that and agreed it was natural and even a good thing.

A sign how much Miss L enjoyed the book was when, after several outside interruptions subsided, she promptly asked me, "please keep reading."

That makes my heart sing. She enjoyed the book!

[K.L. Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old folktales are great stories for bedtime reading. In this soft-spoken Japanese tale, is about a young boy named Akiro. All day long he drew cats instead of helping his family in the fields. His mother asked him why he liked to draw so many cats and he said he was just trying to draw a perfect cat. His parents sent him to a temple with the hope he would learn from a priest. Of course, once in the temple all Akiro did was draw cats. Once again, he wore out his welcome. The priest gave Akiro some parting advice, “stay away from large places, sleep only in small spaces.” Later that day Akiro found a quiet place to draw cats in the temple and when he was done he was very tired. He remembered the priest’s advice and fell asleep in a small cupboard. When he had awoken, he discovered a large dead goblin rat. All of the cats Akiro had drawn were different. What do you think happened?

Authors Anushka Ravishankar and art by Christine Kastl share an old tale that is soft spoken but the theme unravels to a very specific point. An underlying theme is to be who you are. In this case a young boy loved to draw cats and the spiritual piece is that he was supposed to be the one to save a temple. Parents, teachers, caregivers and young readers can enjoy this story for its simplicity, its art or spiritual note.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very enjoyable story told on Audible.com. The musical instruments and the singing in places add so much to it, making it very pleasant to listen to. This fable is about a Japanese boy who loved to draw, but all he ever drew was cats, only cats. No matter what was suggested or asked of him, he drew cats - to make his drawings perfect. After finding he was not cut out to be a priest he set out on an adventure that had surprising and amazing results long awaited.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently free on Audible, this is an excellent narration by Jaaved Jaaferi of a Japanese folktale.
Listening Time : 18 minutes

[Željko Filipin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A boy saves a village by drawing cats.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book scared the sh*t out of me in elementary school.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was fun and i loved the illustrations.

[Leena-Maaretta Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching story about a young boys quirkiness, which eventually becomes pretty useful. A solid and subtle book about accepting people's differences, that also will appeal to cat-lovers. Art works also beautiful.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful retelling of this folktale beautifully illustrated in ink and watercolors.