The Boy Who Drew Cats: A Japanese Folktale

There has never been a time when I did not adore this book, largely for the amazing illustrations. I loved it when I was little to the point of obsession. A few years ago, I rediscovered the book and was incredibly surprised at how little text and story there actually was. It must have dug itself so deeply into my imagination that I invented all sorts of events around the images and wonderful story. I remember being frightened, excited, happy... It had everything a budding bookworm could ever desire. Even though it was not as elaborate as I remembered, it holds a special place on my shelf and it always will.

This is a beautiful version of this classic tale. The artwork is stunning and the story flows seamlessly. I remember reading this tale in a large storybook as a child. I was fairly young and I remember it disturbed me. So I wouldn't recommend this for very young children. For those who don't know, it is about a boy, who likes to draw cats, living in a village and sent to a temple to become a priest because there are too many mouths to feed at home and he's not much good at anything but drawing. He draws cats everywhere inside the temple, including on the walls. One night he tucks himself into a closet to sleep, and begans to hear terrible noises outside of the closet, which last most of the night. In the morning, he emerges from the closet to find a gigantic dead goblin-rat, as big as a cow. And the fangs and claws of his cat pictures are covered with blood because they came to life to save his life. This is a pretty great folktale but probably not for very little children.

The Boy Who Drew Cats is a little hard to classify; it is both a ghost story and a monster story. I first read this story when I was about ten years old, and I have never forgotten it. This is a great story for Halloween, and a wonderful story if you love cats. It's sure to make you appreciate your own feline companion.