Polo's Mother

I have a 10 year old daughter that I have been trying to get into reading for about about 2 years now. It took this series of books to do it. She will sit for hours completely absorbed reading them. Granted she's an animal lover, who especially likes cats, so I would say any girl who loves cats will most likely LOVE these books.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor brings us the fourth gift in her series on the doings of the cat brothers Marco and Polo, and, once again, manages to write a children's book that adults can enjoy. This one is particularly poignant because Polo has spent the first three volumes in the series wistfully wishing he could see his mother again. But, when Mom, a veteran alley cat named Geraldine, finally shows up one day she's not exactly what Polo was expecting. Geraldine has quite an impact upon the Club of Mysteries, of which Marco and Polo are members, managing to go toe-to-toe with the hardscrabble Texas Jake. But, in the end, Polo, of course, winds up finding the motherly affection he has so long desired. Ms. Naylor has a particular knack for writing stories that have genuine appeal to both adults and children. The characters are both complex and accessible, and the humor is both broad and subtle. I had to stop and explain to my 8 year-old daughter several times why I was laughing so hard. She manages to capture the reality of the world in which the cats must live, a world which has its share of danger, death, and indignity, without giving children nightmares. If I have one criticism of "Polo's Mother," it is that some of the crisis moments don't seem to flow out of the story quite as smoothly as in the first three volumes. All of the other adversaries from the previous stories show up at one time or another, and I didn't always find their entries into the story convincing. But, this is a minor quibble with what is otherwise a five-star work of children's fiction. One word of advice: Don't try to read any of the Marco and Polo books out of sequence. Start with volume one and read them in order. And read them slowly and savor them.