|
|
ONE-EYED CAT
by Paula Fox
Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 0689839707
Age Level: Ages 8-10
 |
The year is 1935. Ned Wallis is 11 years old. For his birthday, Ned's
wealthy uncle gives him an air rifle. Ned's father, a preacher in
upstate New York, says that Ned is too young for a rifle, so he puts
the gun in the attic, telling Ned that when he's 14, he can have it.
But Ned goes to the attic after everybody else is in bed and takes
the rifle outdoors. While he's aiming it just for fun, he spots a
shadow of movement by the shed, and he pulls the trigger. Shooting
the gun sobers him up, and he feels very guilty for disobeying his
father. He puts the gun away. It has lost all excitement for him now.
Ned doesn't want to tell anybody what he did. But he's afraid because,
when he went back to the house, he saw a face looking out of the attic
window. He doesn't know who it was, and he doesn't know what the person
saw. Then one day, while he's working at his elderly neighbor's house
after school, he sees a cat. The cat is wild, dirty, and grungy ---
and it only has one eye. There's just a hole where the other eye was.
The cat keeps shaking his head, and he's deaf. Ned is sure that he
shot the cat.
Winter is coming; Ned and his neighbor, old Mr. Scully, are afraid
the cat will freeze to death. He's thin and sick from pain and hunger,
and he can't hunt well with only one eye. Mr. Scully sets out food
for him, and he and Ned watch through the window while the cat sleeps
by the shed. At first it looks like he's going to be okay. The food
perks him up. But as the days get colder and it starts snowing, the
cat gets sicker. One day he's just a mound covered with snow, and
he doesn't move.
Will Ned be able to tell someone what he did? How can anybody forgive
him for hurting an innocent animal? What will happen when Mr. Scully
has a stroke and goes to a nursing home? Can Ned take care of the
cat alone? Will the cat survive? You will want to find out once you
start this gripping novel, which won a Newbery Honor award in 1985.
--- Reviewed by Tamara Penny |
