Millions of Cats
A story 79 years old and still going strong. Years ago I attended a storytelling workshop as an adult and listened to someone read Wanda Ga’g’s Millions of Cats. Even though I knew the story very well, hearing the passage “Cats here, Cats there, Cats and Kittens Everywhere. Hundreds of Cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and Billions and Trillions of cats” stirred me. It still does. Every year I read this to first graders as part of our “essential literature” selections. Every year the students are enthralled with this simple tale and clap joyfully when we reach the end. They learn to appreciate the black and white illustrations and the simple repetitive phrases. Today one of the little boys said, “Aha! That’s a classic!” Since I had talked about classics weeks ago, I was thrilled to hear my words echoed.
Sometimes I look at the non-first graders and I pity those who haven’t heard this classic. Because this is an “essential literature” title, we have 3 sets of tubs containing 25 copies each of this title. Every first grader must hear this story and participate in writing and enrichment activities. Teachers are forbidden from reading this aloud to younger students. Older grade levels do not spend any time re-reading the essential literature titles of previous grades because they have their own. What if a child moves to our school after we have taught this title? They may go through their life and never hear this classic.
An advantage to this approach is for older levels. No longer do middle school students yawn that they have already heard that title when a teacher introduces “A Year Down Yonder” or “Hatchet.” I pity the teams that argued until they built the list. How did they decide to put “Charlotte’s Web” in fourth grade? Did they realize how many second graders had loved this book for so many years? One phenomenon I have witnessed is that the teachers have grown bored with their lists and want new titles. I just wonder how many other districts have restricted reading by teachers to “save titles” for middle school readers. You can rest assured that when these “essential literature” lists were published, we were able to keep all titles in our libraries for any child to check out as they desired. The restrictions came with teacher’s literary-based units, not with the students.
Thank you for your thoughtful post. I have been thinking and worrying lately about the lack of exposure to the classics in my own library so your post came at just the right time to encourage me to do something about it.
Would you, by chance, be willing to share your list of “essential literature?”
Comment by janet pedersen — January 13, 2007 @ 6:50 pm
The link to our district Essential Literature program is http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=8131 As an example, here are the first grade titles with 6 required and six optional:
Required Reading
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day –
Judith Viorst
Chrysanthemum – Kevin Henkes
George and Martha – James Marshall
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – Laura Numeroff
Leo the Late Bloomer – Robert Kraus
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears – Verna Aardema
Optional Reading (total of 6)
Curious George – H. A. Rey
The Doorbell Rang – Pat Hutchins
The Great Kapok Tree – Lynne Cherry
Harry the Dirty Dog – Gene Zion
Horton Hatches the Egg – Dr. Seuss
Millions of Cats – Wanda Gag
Miss Nelson is Missing – Harry Allard
Petunia – Roger Duvoisin
Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Comment by Diane R. Chen — January 13, 2007 @ 10:12 pm
We really love this book, and consider it to be the first of it’s form (children’s picturebook). We recently posted some history on the book at the referenced url.
Comment by Linda Zielinski — January 15, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
Here’s the URL - http://1stedition.net/blog/2007/01/millions_of_cats_1928.html
Comment by Linda Zielinski — January 15, 2007 @ 4:33 pm
Thank you so much for the list and the link to your “essential literature.” I really appreciate it.
Comment by janet pedersen — January 16, 2007 @ 10:16 pm