Calabash Cat

Rating:
Summary: A classic: simple story w/unique illustrations & good moral
Review: Calabash Cat starts in his African home and takes off on a walk to see where the world ends. Thinking maybe it ended at the start of the desert, he sits down. A camel happens by and notes how silly the cat is and says, "Climb up on my back, and I will show you where the world ends," and they walk across the desert. At the end of the desert and beginning of the grasslands, the camel says authoritatively, "Here, my friend, is where the world ends." However a horse happens by to let the cat know that the camel was small-minded to think it ended at the desert. And thus goes several iterations with the horse across the grasslands, the tiger through the jungle, the whale across the sea. The eagle teaches the final moral that the world is without end. My toddler loves the intricate African animal pictures, and I hope that over time he will absorb the lesson that people often only "know" what they've seen and that he should always seek to expand his horizons.

Rating:
Summary: A calabashian feline extraordinaire
Review: Prior to reading this book, if you had walked up to me and said, "List everything you know about the country of Chad" I could have come up with perhaps four facts. 1: It is in Africa. 2: The word Chad contains four letters. 3: If you spell it backwards "Chad" becomes "dahC". 4: A Chad in and of itself is no particular danger, but a hanging Chad might well throw a country into chaos. As you can see, my Chadian knowledge was lacking. Then I picked up "Calabash Cat and His Amazing Journey". This title had intrigued me for a couple reasons. For one thing, it was visually stunning. I'm a sucker for intricate linework, and "Calabash Cat" is awash in tiny details and clever little strokes of the pen. Also, I had heard that this tale was written in both English and Arabic. I am currently under the impression that there is a distinct lack of good Arabic books out there for kids in America to read. To my mind, a book like "Calabash Cat" might well fill a few gaps. So I picked it up for a look-see.

In this fable, we meet a calabash cat. One day, the cat decides to see exactly where the world ends. It stops at a desert and decides that this might well be the world's end. That is, until a camel informs the cat that this is not the world's end and that he will take the feline to the REAL end of the world. They travel to a grassland and the cat is just about to declare it the world's end when a horse informs him that he is mistaken. With that, the cat is on the back of the horse going to the REAL end of the world. From there the cat rides the back of a tiger through a jungle, the back of a whale through the ocean, and finally upon the back of an eagle. The eagle, wisest of all the creatures yet, simply says, "Climb up on my back and I will show you a world without end". Before returning to his home, the cat flies high above the land and we are treated to a magnificent two page spread of animals frolicking on the earth as cat and bird fly silhouetted against a geometric sun.

On the final page of this book, author James Rumford explains that he once bought a carved calabash gourd in the shape of a cat. Looking at the creature, Rumford couldn't help but wonder what other calabash animals his cat might meet and where they might go. Thus, the calabash cat's tale was born. The story contains a classic folktale quest, in this case the search for the farthest end of the world. Rumford has a good ear for repetition and tone. I'm not fluent in Chadian Arabic (no surprises there) so I can't vouch that the words in that language flow as well as they do in the English. Needless to say, it nice that they're there at all.

The illustrations in this story are modeled on the style of Chad's calabash engravers. The cat, for his part, has a large lizard and fish bedecking his body. In fact, each animal that comes with contact with our intrepid hero is illustrated in a similar manner. Against a brown mottled background, these animals are a beautiful array of black pen and ink, the occasional colored line appears behind them to set the scene. Therefore, the final rainbow infused shot in the book is a real delight, displaying not only the animals we already met in the story but some others that are wholly original. My first thought when I saw this illustrations was their similarity to other fine picture books out there. Books like "Rosie's Walk" by Pat Hutchins or "Drummer Hoff" by B. Emberley come to mind. Like "Calabash Cat", they too are filled with delicate lines and stoic protagonists. A storytime containing all three of these books would be an excellent idea, by the way.

If you'd like to introduce an African inspired picture book to your repetoire, but you're just so doggone tired of Anase tales, try your hand with this Chad inspired little number. I can guarantee you've never see anything to quite compare. From the heady illustrations to the classic nature of its tale, this is a book to treasure deeply. West African cats will never look the same again.