Review of High Clowder Cats

[Katelyn Witham]

[Following is a volunteer review of "High Clowder Cats" by Ruby Knight.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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High Clowder Cats is a novel about one lone cat’s journey in finding a home and community, humbly rising to leadership, and building meaningful relationships along the way. The story follows Bushytail who, as a kitten, leaves the city and starts on an adventure to find where he belongs in the world. He befriends a small group of stray cats and learns how to work in a group to survive and also live in the now. One member of the group becomes his mentor and teaches him the three rules to being a cat and how to use them as he grows into an adult tomcat. The two move on from the temporary living arrangement and, after a lengthy travel while practicing the three rules, eventually find a clowder to call home. It is an excellent reference for teaching older kids about decision making, perseverance, fighting tyranny even through harsh conditions, and constantly growing and learning. The author captures, in great detail, how a good leader is developed.

In the story, the characters reference historic stone cave drawings, which help shape the society these cats created. This would have been a great time to teach about learning from history, “honoring your ancestors,” and doing the right thing just because it is the right thing to do, but the author instead chose to parallel religion. I see how this could be an analogy for how religion could have been started in today’s society and what role it plays in leadership and decisions. I do not think, however, that this taught anything other than to interpret messages and blindly worship. I would have liked The Stone to teach history, logic, and goodwill.

In the beginning, it was really hard to picture the surroundings and what the character was going through. Yes, it’s from a cat’s perspective; however, I found myself re-reading to try to guess what they could have been talking about. The ending also felt rushed and significantly less detailed than the rest of the book, which was a little disappointing.

There was about one typo, spelling error, or missing comma per chapter, including the main character’s name being spelled incorrectly once.

Overall, I’m rating the book a 4 out of 5.

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High Clowder Cats
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