''It's Like This, Cat'' is a novel by American writer

Emily Cheney Neville Emily Cheney Neville (December 28, 1919 – December 14, 1997) was an American people, American author. Her first book, ''It's Like This, Cat'' (1963), won the Newbery Medal in 1964. Personal life and education Neville was born on Decemb ...

, which won the

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

for excellence in

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

. ''It's Like This, Cat'' was Neville's first book.

Plot summary

The main character of the story is Dave Mitchell, a 14-year-old boy who is growing up in mid-20th century

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Dave lives with his father and his

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

tic mother, whose attacks worsen when Dave and his father have their frequent arguments. Dave's refuge after a clash with his father is with Kate, an elderly neighbor whose apartment is filled with stray cats she loves. Dave adopts one of the stray cats, names it "Cat" and takes him home. "Cat" brings both joy and adventure into Dave's life. Cat's presence brings Dave into contact with several new people, including a troubled college-aged boy named Tom, and Dave's first girlfriend, Mary. While documenting Dave's growing maturity, the book also provides glimpses of a few of New York's neighborhoods and attractions, from the

Fulton Fish Market The Fulton Fish Market is a fish market in Hunts Point, a section of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It was originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and produce. In November 2005, the ...

to the

Bronx Zoo The Bronx Zoo (also historically the Bronx Zoological Park and the Bronx Zoological Gardens) is a zoo within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area and the largest Metropolis, metropol ...

and

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

Plot details

Cat and Kate

Dave is nearly hit by a car, and is saved by Kate, an older woman who takes him back to her apartment, which she shares with numerous rescued stray cats. Dave decides to take a male cat home with him as a pet, and names him Cat.It's Like This, Cat. Online Book. University of Pennsylvania Library Website
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Cat and the Underworld

After a night of wandering, Cat gets locked in a storage cage in an apartment basement. An older boy skulking in the basement helps Dave break Cat out of the cage. Later, Dave makes an offhand remark to the superintendent of that apartment about the older boy, which leads the super to discover the basement has been robbed. Dave is initially concerned that he is a suspect and changes his appearance, but the older boy, Tom Ransom, 19, was caught trying to return the things he had stolen on a dare. Dave writes Tom a letter.

Cat and Coney

Dave and his best friend Nick decide to take Cat with them to the beach at Coney Island. There they meet three girls their age who use Cat as an excuse to meet the boys, including a quiet brunette named Mary who actually likes Cat.

Fight

Nick drags Dave against his will on a double date with two of the girls they met at the beach (but not Mary). Dave becomes resentful of Nick making fun of him to impress the girls, and after the date they get into a fistfight.

Around Manhattan

Tom comes to visit Dave, and they spend the day exploring the city.

And Brooklyn

Dave rides his bike to Brooklyn to find Tom working in a gas station. Later, Dave meets Tom at Coney Island, where he meets Tom's girlfriend Hilda. Hilda fills Dave in on Tom's getting kicked out of

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

and his father disowning him, which led up to his accepting the dare in the basement. Back at home, Dave asks his father, Pop, a lawyer, if he can do anything to help Tom, and his father agrees to talk to him.

Survival

Cat comes home seriously injured from a fight with another cat, and Dave has to make the difficult decision to have him neutered.

West Side Story

Dave bumps into Mary, the quiet brunette from his trip to Coney Island with Nick, at a record store. They go to a performance of ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

'' together, and make plans to meet up over

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. He went ashore at ...

Fathers

Tom follows Pop's advice to write his father and own up to his mistakes, and to ask for help. The letter is returned to sender, no forwarding address. Pop advises Tom to forget about his father, and Pop promises to help Tom get his life in order.

Cat and the Parkway

Pop has made some headway helping Tom get credit for his college classes, and he and Dave help Tom get a job at the local florist. Dave and his parents plan a vacation at a lake in the Connecticut countryside in August. The family is stuck in heavy traffic on the Hutchinson River Parkway, when Cat escapes through an open window. Pop just laughs. Dave rushes after Cat, with no way for his parents to turn around and pick him up. He walks the long way home, where his parents are waiting for him. After a brief fight, his father apologizes for laughing about Cat running, and they resume their vacation.

Rosh Hashanah at the Fulton Fish Market

Dave starts his first year of high school at Charles Evans Hughes High School. He does not know many other students at the school, but he recognizes a familiar face: Ben Alstein, a Jewish boy who lives near him. Dave and Ben become friends and spend the

Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah (, , ) is the New Year in Judaism. The Hebrew Bible, biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , ). It is the first of the High Holy Days (, , 'Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summe ...

school holiday exploring the city and visiting the

to get fish heads for Cat.

The Red Eft

Dave and Ben visit the

and an adjacent park to research native animals for a biology project. There they catch two red efts, and on their way home view the

ticker-tape parade A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in an urban setting, characterized by large amounts of shredded paper thrown onto the parade route from the surrounding buildings, creating a celebratory flurry of paper. Originally, actual ticker tap ...

for a test pilot. While they are working on their report in Dave's room, Cat kills one of the efts.

The Left Bank of Coney Island

Dave meets Mary on the Coney boardwalk on a cold Columbus Day. Mary takes him home and introduces him to her

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms ...

mother.

Expedition by Ferry

Dave and Mary continue their Columbus Day date together by riding their bikes to catch the

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

ferry. They have lunch at a

delicatessen A delicatessen or deli is a grocery that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany (contemporary spelling: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th centur ...

and visit the zoo.

Dollars and Cats

Tom and Kate join Dave and his parents for Thanksgiving dinner. Afterwards, Kate receives a telegram saying that her estranged, hermetic, wealthy brother has just died.

Fortune

The prospect of gaining her brother's fortune, and the media attention that ensues, overwhelm Kate. A kitten meets a grisly end under the foot of a careless news photographer, and Dave's family ends up adopting two of Kate's other kittens.

Telephone Numbers

Dave receives an unexpected phone call from Mary, who was shopping at Macy's and missed a rendezvous with her mother, and now does not have enough money to get back home. Dave brings her home for dinner. It is then that he realizes that she had looked up his number weeks before.

"Here's to Cat!"

Tom and Hilda arrive at Dave's house to announce they are getting married, and Tom has enlisted in the Army's Air Defense Command. They all make a toast to Cat.

Characters

*Dave Mitchell: a 14-year-old boy living in Manhattan, New York in the early 1960s. *"Aunt" Kate Carmichael: a middle-aged spinster who is distrustful of people and takes in stray cats. *Cat: an orange male tabby cat Dave adopts from Kate. *"Pop" Mitchell: Dave's father, a lawyer with a quick temper, prone to getting into shouting matches with Dave. *Agnes "Mom" Mitchell: Dave's mother, a quiet woman prone to asthma attacks, especially when stressed by fights between Dave and Pop. *Tom Ransom: a troubled 19-year-old boy whom Dave meets by chance. *Nick: Dave's friend since early childhood. *Mary: a quiet brunette who Dave meets at Coney Island, and who becomes his first girlfriend. *Ben Alstein: a Jewish boy who Dave befriends in high school because he is one of the few familiar faces at his new school. *Butch: the janitor of Dave's apartment building *Fred Snood: the superintendent of Apartment 46, where Dave meets Tom for the first time. *Hilda: Tom's girlfriend. *Nina: Mary's beatnik mother. *Kenny Wright: a boy who Dave meets while on vacation in Connecticut who teaches him how to skin dive. *Joey: a tag-along younger boy who always got Dave and Nick in trouble with his older brother. *Blonde: Mary's friend who Nick is interested in. *Redhead: the Blonde's friend, she is Dave's date on the double date.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' said of the book: "The author knows the language of a New York boy in the same sense that

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

knew the talk of a Mississippi one, and like Mark Twain, she has such complete mastery of the technique that the reader is never aware of someone standing behind the boy." In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1956 to 1965, librarian Carolyn Horovitz wrote: "The author's sensitive, intuitive knowledge of a young boy living in New York seems to be far greater than her ability to bring this into absolutely true focus."

References

External links

*A public domain online edition of
It's Like This, Cat
', a 1964 Newbery Medal Book, is available a
A Celebration of Women Writers
* * {{Authority control 1963 American novels 1963 children's books American children's novels Children's novels about cats Harper & Row books Newbery Medal–winning works Novels set in New York City 1963 debut novels Children's books set in New York City