I Want to Go Home

by Alice McLerran and Alice McLervan

A new cat named Sammy helps Marta adjust to the move to a new house. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688101445
• ISBN13: 9780688101442
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Tambourine Books
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 9.5" x 11.1"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

A gentle treatment of moving and pets

"I Want to Go Home" could have been sad. Instead the book is positive and uplifting and a wonderful storybook addition to any children's library. The merging of talents of writing and art was a perfect match for this book. Even the back flap shows both Alice McLerran (author) and Jill Kastner (artist) holding cats. Their affinity for cats is obvious through story and illustrations. Young Marta and her mother have moved into a new house. Marta wants desperately to go back "home." She hates the yellow and purple wallpaper in her new room. To assuage her longing to return to her old house, Marta's mother wisely gives her a cat named Sammy, about to be abandoned by people who cannot keep a cat in their new apartment. Sammy, too, wants to go home. Who are these people? What is this place? So like a cat, he disappears until he thinks through what is wanted from him now. After two days he pops out of the closet, then that night climbs onto the bed with Marta. Marta and Sammy finally bond and neither wants to go home any more because they ARE at home! What a lovely book with a reassuring message that children and animals can cope with change. One secret for happiness is thinking about the feelings of others. This Marta does when she worries about Sammy. The illustrations are oil on tinted paper and are simply gorgeous. One of the best cat paintings is right here in this book: Sammy a gray tabby with white rings around his eyes. A touching story with lovely and warm artwork. In fact, the last illustration is worthy of framing and displaying: Marta in black and white, Sammy in gray and black--both against an impressionistic blurring of oranges and purples. The colors are striking! Why isn't this book still in print?!