One-Eyed Cat

Once upon a time there was a little girl and her big sister. Often the big sister would tuck the little girl into bed at night. After songs and kisses and cross of Jesus, the big sister would say, "Good night, Punk-a-wunk," and close the door.

It was the same way each time, until one night, when the big sister said, "Good night, Punk-a-wunk," the funny little girl said, "Good night, you one eye cat!"

And the rest, as they say, is history.....

After years of having this book, One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox, sit on my shelf, I decided to read it - in honor of my little sister Elizabeth. (Yes, yes...I know you're a grown up now, and a teacher no less, but you will always be my Punk-a-wunk!)

This book is as strange as that nickname Elizabeth gave me, which came entirely out of the blue. I remember laughing right out loud that first night she said it. But there was no laughing in this book.

Ned Wallis is the only child of a preacher and an invalid mother. (She's suffering from inflammatory rheumatism.) For his 11th birthday that fall, his mother's brother, Uncle Hilary, gives him an air rifle, against his parents' better judgment. Ned's parents say he can have it in a few years, but he's drawn to the thing. That night, Ned can't sleep, and so he retrieves the loaded air rifle from the attic and takes it outside into the woods. When his eye catches a moving shadow, he doesn't think, doesn't hesitate, just shoots......at something living. Immediately he regrets his choice, and to top it off, when he comes home, he notices someone watching him out the attic window.

Guilt consumes Ned. He can't tell his parents what he's done; he can't even tell Mr. Scully, the elderly neighbor for whom he does odd jobs, and they tell each other plenty. Winter approaches, and one day Ned sees a sick cat with an empty eye socket, and he knows this must be the shadow he shot at.

Ned does all he can to help the cat. He thinks about it day and night. He plans his life around helping the cat, cancelling a Christmas vacation trip with Uncle Hilary simply because if he's gone, who will take care of the cat?

This is a hard book to recommend. It's not that I didn't like the book, but I don't think my students would like it. More so, I don't know if they would "get" it. I think the book has great irony - Ned's overwhelming guilt incapacitates him more than his mother's illness does her. And there's definitely a lesson to be learned about how disobedience, combined with withholding the truth, leads you into greater unresolved internal conflict. The longer Ned waits, the worse it gets. The guy is in some serious need of Peacemaker skills!

One-Eyed Cat is a Newbery Honor Book besides receiving a host of other honors. Plenty of people thought, and think, this book is a winner. Will you?