Ahoy there me mateys! I recently saw this book somewhere and of course was interested because of the title. Cause cats be awesome. Then I saw that Amazon had it for free. So I downloaded it. Apparently it be the 1964 Newbery winner. Which of course I had forgotten about despite having read the list of Newbery winners a billion times. I also had no idea what it was about. I picked it up yesterday on a whim.

I adored it. It be a coming of age tale about a boy named Dave, growing up in Manhattan in the 1960s. He happens to get a stray cat named Cat who changes his life. While the Cat parts are absolutely lovely, the real story of the book revolves around Dave’s evolving relationships with his family and friends. He roams all over Manhattan living an everyday life. Dave is naïve but endearing and good-hearted.

It is also a slice of life story. The writing style is simplistic in style but does deal with more mature themes like homelessness, parental abandonment, mental illness, chronic illness, and death. Despite the dark themes, the tone is lighter and not depressing. Dave learns and reflects and changes because of what he experiences.

I think this is an excellent example of a children’s classic that people should still read. While it seems simplistic to a reader today, this book was credited with introducing the first-person present tense in children’s books. It was also said to be too realistic. An fantastic article discussing the background of the book says that in the author’s “Newbery acceptance speech, “Out Where the Real People Are,” Emily Neville defended this new genre for teens: “The real world, with its shadings of light and dark, its many-toned colors, is so much more beautiful than the rigid world of good and bad. It is also more confusing. I think the teen-age reader is ready for both.” This book helped usher in a new trend in teen literature that forever changed the landscape of publishing. Arrrr!