MILLIONS OF CATS - Wanda Gag

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gág, Wanda. 1956. Millions of Cats. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9780881035605

2. PLOT SUMMARY
In Millions of Cats, author-illustrator Wanda Gág introduces us to an elderly couple, lonely because they live by themselves. When the gentleman’s wife wistfully comments how she would like “a sweet little fluffy cat,” he sets out to find her one. Instead of one, though, he finds millions. Each one is precious, so which shall he bring home to his wife? How can he choose? Sometimes, what you set out to find isn’t what you find in the end. And sometimes, what you find is better than what you thought you wanted.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In Gág’s Millions of Cats, it is the cats who are the focus of the book. There is little character development in the story, and the couple doesn’t even have names. The human characters are more important as a device to introduce the cats than because they contribute to the story. However, the man’s affection for his wife, and even the cats, is clear. He isn’t very decisive, and in the end, it is the cats who decide how to handle the situation. Exactly what happens is never explained, but the couple is satisfied with the surprise resolution. While the characters are flat and the situation exaggerated to an extreme, children may identify with feelings of loneliness or the desire to have a pet. Children may also feel that some choices can be overwhelming, though the book does not offer any guidance for how to actively make a choice in that situation.

Gág’s hand lettering and black and white illustrations are quaint and folksy. The illustrations give a flavor of European peasants through their clothing. The specific setting is never identified, and does not need to be for the purposes of the story. The illustrations are stylized, but give enough detail to see the personalities of many of the cats. It would be impossible to draw millions of cats, but Gág succeeds in creating the impression of multitudes.

Children may enjoy the repeated chorus of “Hundreds of cats,/Thousands of cats,/Millions and billions and trillions of cats.” The text has a dated feel to it, but does not contain words that children today would not know. The narrator speaks in an adult voice. There is an oral storytelling quality to the text, like the narrator is sitting with children and telling the story from memory. This adds the feeling of a personal connection between the narrator and the reader.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) AND AWARDS
Newbery Medal Honor, 1929

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, 1958

“Most highly recommended” by H. W. Wilson’s Children’s Core Collection

The New York Times: “A perennial favorite.”

Children’s Literature: “An outstanding example of a book in which text and illustrations seem to flow together.”

5. CONNECTIONS

-          After the man finds all the cats, students could give predictions for what they think will happen in the last part of the story and why. Students could brainstorm what they would do in the man’s situation, faced with millions of cats.

-          Students could discuss what criteria they would use to select a cat or other pet, and they could include black and white illustrations to go with their descriptions.

-          The element of exaggeration could be the starting point for looking for similar books the children might know, like David Shannon’s Too Many Toys (ISBN 978-0439490290). They could compare and contrast how the characters wound up with so much and what they decided to do about it.

-          Children could write their own “millions” story individually, in groups, or as a class.

-          Millions of Cats could be paired with Deborah Kogan Ray’s Wanda Gág: The Girl Who Lived to Draw (ISBN 978-0670062928), a biography which won awards for ALSC Notable Children's Books and NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People in 2009.