The Tapestry Cats

by Ann Turnbull

Book Overview

A bored little princess tells stories to entertain the knights, mermaids, and dolphins woven into the tapestries on the castle walls and dreams of what it would be like to keep the gold and silver... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316856266
• ISBN13: 9780316856263
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 26 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.8" x 10.8"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

All this young princess wants are some cats to call her own

Once upon a time, that is to say in former days, there was a princess who lived in a castle with her mother, the Queen. You might think that being a princess would be one of the best of all possible worlds but this Queen always knew what was best for her daughter, who was, after all, only six years old. The Queen insisted that young princesses should always wear stiff brocade dresses and scratchy tiaras. Even worse, they should never jump in puddles or even be allowed to keep pets. The princess liked to read, but her mother insisted her daughter liked having dancing lessons and although she wanted more than anything else was a cat she knew to look forward to embroidered socks and a yellow petticoat.Instead of being a happy princess this young girl spent many lonely hours looking at the colorful tapestries that hung form the walls of the castle. The princess liked the tapestries because even though they were old and dusty with faded colors, they were full of knights in armor, unicorns, dolphins, mermaids, and, best of all, there are cats. One is a big golden tabby cat that the princess named Gold. The other is a silver-gray tabby cat she called Silver. The princess would pretend that Gold and Silver were her own cats and imagine all of the things that they could do together if only they were real. Then came her seventh birthday and her Fairy Godmother was invited by the Queen to the party. After receiving the new tiara, a necklace of rubies and other things she could care less about, the Princess was asked by her Fairy Godmother "And what would you like from me?"Written by Ann Turnbull and illustrated with enchanting watercolors, "The Tapestry Cats" is a charming little story about how things work out for the best even if your mother always think she knows what is best for you (or your cats). There is also a nice little lesson about how important names can be in the real world. But I really like the quirky artwork, where people have little heads and delicate features while wearing large embroidered dresses. Then there are all those tapestries with the exotic looking animals. "The Tapestry Cats' should be a treat for most little girls, even if they are not princesses with mothers who know everything or are not yet allowed to have cats they can call their own.