Boy Who Drew Cats
by David Johnson
narrated by William Hurt
music by Mark Isham
Rabbit Ears Radio Children's Classics from around the World
Cassette plus poster with all the words from the story on the back so patrons can read along.
Children's folk tale.
There is a frail boy who loves to draw cats. His family is poor and he is sent out to be an apprentice. He does try to pay attention to one master after another, but keeps failing due to his obsession with cats. What will become of the little boy? The poster and illustrations are lovely in the Japanese tradition and the story is based on a legend about a famous artist. When the cassette breaks and the library has to discard it, I wouldn't mind inheriting this poster of a boy drawing cats. Since my library has owned it since 1991 there is probably not much more life left in this audiobook.
I listened to this with a 5 and a 6 year old. It was too long for them to stay interested through the whole story (29:20 minutes long), but I enjoyed it. The music and the narration were well timed and side two of the tape had pleasant music without the narration. Some of the story was rather gruesome for a 5 year old. I am guessing that this would be a good story for ages 8 or 9 and up. One reason is that it 4 nice pictures on the poster, but it isn't really a book + cassette like some of the other kits that our library owns. If I had it to do over again I would check out the book with the cassette and the poster, since, presumably, the book would have more pictures.
