Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Tea

My 4 year old daughter and I enjoyed this sweet tale. It is the first Putter and Tabby book we’ve owned and we can’t wait to buy and read the rest!

Cynthia Rylant, the author of many young adult and children's books (Missing May, the Henry and Mudge series) has written another clear-eyed, discerning and thoroughly unsentimental tale about human attachments. What she pulled off with such dash in When the Relatives Came, Rylant accomplishes yet again, though this story's pace is the opposite of that whirlwind visit of a truckload of relatives. A leisurely teatime is an excellent metaphor for the bond between Mr. Putter and his tabby cat. Everything these two friends do is predictable and beautifully ritualized, though never boring. Like all of Cynthia Rylant's work, this is a portrait drawn from life. Nothing is made up merely to amuse. It's an observation being passed on to us, and a grateful one at that. Perhaps Rylant is a writer who is thankful that there is love in this world. Her insights seem to flow from the fullness of experience and are painted with a deft hand.

Wow! Cynthia Rylant makes you love old Mr. Putter with words that are so easy a beginning reader can read the book, and yet incredibly profound with such simplicity. "All day long as Mr. Putter clipped his roses and fed his tulips and watered his trees, Mr. Putter wished for some company." Mr. Putter finds a very old, lonely cat at an animal shelter and now they both have companionship and their lives are no longer lonely.

This is a story about a fundamental human need, that of companionship. Mr. Putter is an old man who lives alone, has muffins in the morning and tea in the afternoon. He works in his yard during the day, but there is no one to do it with. Therefore, Mr. Putter decides to get a cat. He goes to a store, but all they have is kittens, which have too much energy for him. The clerk suggests that he go to a shelter, which he does. While there, he finds an old yellow cat whose bones creak; hair is thinning and appears to be a little deaf. All characteristics shared by Mr. Putter. Once he gets the cat home, he names him Tabby. They hit it off immediately, becoming the best of friends and Mr. Putter is once again enjoying life. It is a charming book with a powerful and correct social message about how the elderly live their lives.

With astonishing economy of words, Rylant sketches a life of solitude, then the beauty of companionship, in a way that can be appreciated by a young child, an adult, and everyone in between. All the "Mr. Putter and Tabby" books are good, but this one has an internal narrative power that the others sometimes lack. In effect this is a story of mutual redemption, with a happy ending but (for adults) a poignant aftertaste.

I came across Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea recently when visiting the wonderful Rosetree Cottage tearoom and gift shop in Pasadena, California. I purchased it as a treat for myself and wish I now had copies for my friends. It's a small book, simple to read with nice illustrations. It's a collector's item for catlovers and tea enthusiasts alike. It tells the story of elderly Mr. Putter living alone and wishing he had a cat as a companion. He searches for and finds an older cat with similar qualities as himself. He chooses and takes home this tabby and they become close friends and companions enjoying each other's company including having tea together