A cat up a tree: what could be more familiar? Yet in this seemingly ordinary event lies a world of humor, pathos, and wonder. The story unfolds one poem at a time, sweeping the reader into a pageant of characters, all of whom think they know best what to do with the cat.

But does the cat need catching? The fireman and cat-catcher, a little girl, a wary robin, and an overzealous mayor, among others, all have their point of view.

Effortlessly changing mood and voice, evoking everyday wishes and secret longings, the poems here cast a rich storytelling spell from which no one, young or old, cat-lover or not, will emerge unmoved.

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Reviews:

Cat lovers will go wild for this work, as will poets and dreamers. Ages 8-up. (starred review, Publisher's Weekly)

With their magical grace, wide range and easy humor, the verse brings to mind the work of Robert Louis Stevenson. Each poem is a gem, but the sum is even greater than its parts. (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review)

Cat up a Tree Awards:

*1998 New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

*Top 100 Books of 1998 You've Got to Have in Your Library, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

How Cat up a Tree Came to be

Cat up a Tree was born late in 1991 when my three children and I watched two firemen attempt to rescue a cat from some tall cedars in Golden Gate Park. I was fascinated by the various characters who gathered to watch. What kept them there, despite fog and cold and growing dark? What was going through their minds?

When I sat down to write, I was surprised to see The Fireman's Lament appear on the page, followed by The Secret Life of a Cat, then The Cat Reviews His First Four Lives. What was this book up to, I wondered? New characters continued to arrive, each with a unique personality, perspective, interest in the fate of the cat -- and, not surprisingly, a unique meter and rhyme scheme.

Cat Up a Tree was written almost entirely at night, when only our resident great horned owls, G.H. and Manyfeathers, were awake to keep me company. I watched many faces of the moon, including two total eclipses and the passage of new comets, which found their way, respectively, into Moon Solitary and Night Rising.