One day he chases a cat up the tree in the yard and it started to rain. Although it was nice Pickles wanted to be free outside. Goodking told Pickles that he should not chase those cats and that he needed a good home and she brought him into her home. Pickles was a cat with big paws who wanted to do big things but the only thing he knew how to do was chase other cats that came into his yard. ![]() Goodkind who had several cats of her own. The Fire Cat is a story about a cat named Pickles that lived in a barrel in a large yard next to a big house. And just that easily Pickles has become a classic, as well he deserves. What's cool is seeing that my children love this book too. I will likely read this book another hundred times yet in my lifetime, and I will likely love it over and over again. Then put in a cat who is trying really hard to be good, the thrills and chills of fires and rescues, and a lot of really great people who love Pickles (and cameos from all the cats in the Cat Club), and you've got a winner. First of all, there's enough words here to be a real story, with three actual honest to goodness chapters. ![]() I loved this book and I'm surprised I didn't wear out my copy completely. I first meet him, back when I first learned how to read somewhere about the age of three or four. Pickles is a cat who is neither good nor bad, but a bit of each. We'll call this book comfort food, along with every other book by Esther Averill, shall we? As I am curled up in bed with a cold, it makes sense to look for things that make me feel good, at least in the emotional sense, since I can't stop my nose from running (oh but I wish I could!) Not a word is out of place in such books, whose simplicity can be deceptive.įinally, as a side note, I have discovered that Esther Averill wrote an entire series of books about the neighborhood cats depicted in this title, none of which were known to me as a child. The truly great children's authors somehow manage to write stories that are emotionally involving and intellectually stimulating, all with a limited word choice that would stymie an author of adult fiction. I am always amazed at the great skill and discipline required to create a successful picture book or early reader. The young reader will absorb the idea that sometimes poor behavior (such as bullying) is the result of poor circumstances, rather than "simple" malice, and that there are more creative (and effective) solutions than condemnation. As a teaching tool, Averill's simple story manages to offer a keenly observed social commentary, all without ever descending into any sort of didactic display. As a straight-forward narrative about a homeless cat who finds a home and family, it is an engaging and heart-warming story, with all the appeal of the classic "orphan" tale. Like all great children's books, it functions on more than one level. ![]() Then one fateful day, when Pickles found himself stuck in a tree, the local fire department appeared on the scene.Įsther Averill's The Fire Cat was one of my childhood favorites, and I must have read and re-read it a hundred times. She understood that he wasn't a good cat OR a bad cat, but a good AND bad cat, and that what he needed was a sense of purpose. A cat with big paws and a longing to do big things, the boredom of his aimless, friendless existence as a street-cat had turned him into a bully. The cause of the fire hasn’t been reported by officials, nor how much damage resulted.Pickles was well on his way to life as a feline delinquent. No injuries were reported after the fire, which was confined to one apartment. The cat was not injured, Langford said, adding he was trying to track down its owner. “It went under my car and hid until she felt better after a couple of minutes and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in,” said fire department spokesman Larry Langford. But it missed a wall as it hurtled downward and instead landed on all four paws atop grass, where it bounced once and immediately ran away. The fire-fleeing feline briefly tested the side of the building with its front paws, and then jumped. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.ĬHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago cat may now have eight lives after jumping out of a fifth-floor window Thursday afternoon to escape an apartment fire.Ĭhicago Fire Department personnel were taking a video of the exterior of the building as firefighters were extinguishing the blaze when a black cat appeared through billowing smoke at a broken window. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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