Thursday, December 18, 2014

Cat At the Wall (Deborah Ellis)

Deborah Ellis never disappoints. I am always surprised, though, that her books are J fiction. While she does handle difficult issues with ease, they are still very difficult issues. I'm not sure elementary or middle school kids would even come close to "getting it". But then again, maybe that is ok.

What I got from this book was similar to her book, Three Wishes. In the Israeli/Palestinian war there is so much hatred that has gone on for so long and it is so complicated, how can there even be any solution. Hating and killing is just a way of life for both sides.

But, somewhere in it all, there is still humanity. However, there is a lot of heartbreak for all to take in.

This book is definitely worth reading. It handles difficult and complex issues and makes you think.

Goodreads summary: 

A cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house on the West Bank that has just been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.

Should she help him?


After all, she's just a cat.


Or is she?


It turns out that this particular cat is not used to thinking about anyone but herself. She was once a regular North American girl who only had to deal with normal middle-school problems -- staying under the teachers' radar, bullying her sister and the uncool kids at school, outsmarting her clueless parents.


But that was before she died and came back to life as a cat, in a place with a whole different set of rules for survival.


When the little boy is discovered, the soldiers don't know what to do with him. Where are the child's parents? Why has he been left alone in the house? It is not long before his teacher and classmates come looking for him, and the house is suddenly surrounded by Palestinian villagers throwing rocks, and the sound of Israeli tanks approaching.


Not my business, thinks the cat. And then she sees a photograph, and suddenly she understands what happened to the boy's parents, and why they have not returned. And as the soldiers begin to panic, and disaster seems certain, she knows that it is up to her to diffuse the situation.


But what can a cat do? What can any one creature do


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