Cute purry cats with wings and Ursula Le Guin -- back in the 1988, this combination did not really work for me. I was too much in awe of Leguin's mind-expanding stories and her rich humane wisdom to feel comfortable with her as the writer of what is, quite frankly, a rather simplistic children's book.

Parenthood changes many things. I've now found that its very simplicity makes this an excellent read aloud book. True it's not particularly deep, but the fineness of the prose shines through if you More...

A short, fantasy story about four kittens born with wings: Thelma, Roger, James and Harriet. The kittens are born under a dumpster in a city. Their mother works hard to keep her children alive and safe. She doesn't care that they're unusual kittens. One day a dog chases one of the kittens -- Harriet -- who flies onto a rooftop to escape. Then their mother understands that it's time for her kittens to leave her, and she tells them to go far away.

In their search for a new home, the kittens have to More...

Very short book with some weird ideas when you think about it.

One day, a cat gives birth to four little kittens with wings. They five of them live in the big city though, and the mother cat worries that it's not a safe place. She even thinks that they were born with wings because of her thoughts of running away from it. So one day, she tells them in so many words to get lost, and the catwings fly to a nearby forest.

The birds in the nearby forest are alarmed, and not entirely without merit. Cats More...

I finished reading "Catwings collection" yesterday. They are my second to fifth books to read in English in this year. The books have four volumes. Each title is " Catwings", " Catwings Return", " Wonderful Alexander And The Catwings" and " Jane On Her Own". I figured out " Catwings" first at a book store. I turned some pages, and I loved the illustration at first sight. Those were awesome! I bought first book and read it. Since the book was written for kids, it was easy to understand. In additi More...

It's no secret that I love Ursula K. Le Guin. I decided to read everything by her, so I got these kids books, the Catwings series. This is the first. They have the same solid reality and aching sense of longing that many of her fantasies for adult readers give. These would make a great introduction for any child to UKL's work, but are jewels of great beauty for grown-ups to cherish as well. The idea of cats with wings is so perfect. It just rings true, for some reason. UKL's books always have a More...

Ursula K. Le Guin es una escritora que me encanta. Sobre todo es conocida por sus obras de fantasía (Terramar) y las de ciencia ficción (La mano izquierda de la oscuridad o Los desposeídos a la cabeza).

En 1988 escribió este encantador relato ilustrado, dirigido a niños de entre 7 y 10 años. Desde entonces ha publicado 3 secuelas (que espero pedir en breve) y está formando parte importante de la infancia de muchas personas.

Es muy corto, apenas 40 páginas, con unas estupendas ilustraciones de S. D More...

Catwings was written in 1988 and is geared toward elementary aged children. It opens with a mother cat and her four kittens, who happen to have wings. They live on a street that has gotten progressively more dirty and dangerous. The mother cat is a little worried about her children with wings, but loves, cares for them and feeds them well. As they grow things get more dangerous on the street. One day something happens that makes the mom tell her children to use their wings to fly to a safer plac More...

I read this series of short books aloud to my daughter when she was in the first grade. We both were mesmerized by this sweet and subtly deep story about a litter of cats born with wings. There is no magic in these books, and yet they are pure magic. Definitely recommended, and they really kept my attention as well. Subtle lessons about compassion and how different people react to others with unusual traits.

It isn't often that the award-winning fantasy and sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin has written a book for children, but Catwings is just such a book. In this story, we meet four kittens named James, Roger, Harriet, and Thelma who share an unusual trait—they each have a pair of functional wings. Their mother Jane doesn't know how it happened, but she does know that she wants her children to use this gift to fly as far away as possible from the inhospitable city. The kittens make it to a forest whe More...

Mother cat encourages her four kittens, born with wings, to leave the dangerous city. They fly to a wooded area where the other animals do not exactly know what to think of them. When the owl realizes the cats may be a danger to her babies, she injures one of them and scares all four. Conveniently, one of the kittens has met a friendly, little girl the same day and life turns around for the group.
This book is very simple reading-wise, while using a great deal of imagination and a certain level o More...

I enjoyed reading this aloud to my 4-year-old son who loves cats and he liked it enough to have me read it a couple of times and then to decide to be a winged cat for Halloween. He did have some questions about why the mother cat seems so willing to let her kittens go and to re-breed so quickly, but once we talked about the fact that that is how real cats are, he seemed fine. In most books for children, talking animals tend to also have other human characteristics, such as being sentimental pare More...

cats. with wings. read while sitting on a rock with my feet in a lake. 5 stars.

SEARCHING FOR KIND HANDS

This delightful tale of four winged felines is a read-in-one-sitting treat--great to read aloud as well. A sweet fantasy, CATWINGS relates the adventures of tabby siblings whose mother advised them to leave the city slums for their health--not to mention her second honeymoon... Whimsy and humor combine to create an enchanting book, which reveals the similarities between two sympathetic (i.e. mutually dependent) species. Purrfect for kids under 10 and all cat lovers. Beat More...

This is a lovely little book written in a style that, to me, evokes Beatrix Potter with the more formal voice of the characters. It helps that it has such lovely illustrations. Like all of Le Guin's work, the characters are fun, and I laughed out loud at one point when the human and feline characters mirrored each other. The book is very brief - again, like Potter - and concerns a litter of four alley kittens who are born with functioning wings. After nurturing them a while, their mama sends the More...

Bought it at a book fair...My tendency toward the fanciful got the better of me and if that's wrong, I don't want to be right!

Catwings was an OK book. I gave it to a group of third graders that are looking for "the most important part" of the book during book club. For this purpose I think Catwings is perfect. It is easy enough for them to finish in a week, and do the work asked of them.

The story is ok. Young cats, miraculously born with wings, are sent on their own for safety. Of course they encounter some unhappy birds at the prospect of flying cats. They end up finding some humans ("hands") that love them for who t More...

http://xoxoxoe.blogspot.com/2012/09/c...

Catwings features four little city kittens, Thelma, Roger, James, and Harriet, whose loving mother, Mrs. Jane Tabby, sends them out in the world, to the country, away from the harsh and dangerous city. The kittens are unique, in that they have all been born with wings. The neighbors don't hesitate to speculate, "I suppose their father was a fly-by-night." Mrs. Tabby, who doesn't have wings herself guesses, "Maybe they have wings because I dreamed, before t More...

This is cute but not as good as I'd hoped when I saw a kid book by Le Guin. I'll let Sam read it and then update with how she felt. For a short not overly-fleshed-out story it had some pretty high-level vocab in it - evasive, fledglings, intolerable - leaving me confused as to who the target audience is. I'm not sure if Sam knows those words but the book is much shorter than her normal favorites at this point (it's only 40 pages with pictures).

Maybe it'd be better for a read-out-loud to both kid More...

I finished reading "Catwings collection" yesterday. They are my second to fifth books to read in English in this year. The books have four volumes. Each title is " Catwings", " Catwings Return", " Wonderful Alexander And The Catwings" and " Jane On Her Own". I figured out " Catwings" first at a book store. I turned some pages, and I loved the illustration at first sight. Those were awesome! I bought first book and read it. Since the book was written for kids, it was easy to understand. In additi More...

Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin was published in 1988. I didn't hear about it or the rest of the series until I was an adult. But the illustrations by S.D. Schindler make me feel nostalgic for the late 1980s. Around the time the book came out I drew a little cat bird sketch... similar to (but nowhere near as cute) as the catwing kittens.

Catwings opens with a simple statement, one that asks the reader to accept the story as is and not expect much in the way of explanation. It says: "Mrs. Jane Tabby More...

After recently reading what I at first considered to be my first Ursula K. Le Guin work, I was reminded of the fact that I was quite wrong... and that as a child, I had actually loved two Le Guin books, though that may have been because they included the young-Alana prerequisite for any good book: cats.

Catwings focuses on the Tabby family, or rather, the four children of Mrs. Jane Tabby. Without a father and with their home in a neighborhood that was growing worse, Mrs. Jane Tabby has her paws More...

Oh snap, I completely remember this book. I guess I had a much earlier induction to Le Guin than I ever expected. Another point to the 'everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten' crowd.

As a kid I loved kitties, and this is a book about kitties...with wings. I was sold, forever and ever. I eventually learned to cope with the fact that my kitties would never sprout wings or talk.

And now I find out there were sequels? Um, let the great hunt begin.

This is a charming book about a litter of kittens born with wings, making them look like furry birds! As they grow, their mother, a more traditional cat, encourages them to leave the slum in which they were born and see the rest of the world. The drawings by S.D. Shindler are of ink and watercolor and really add delight to the book. It has 3 sequels. Recommended by Amazon for readers in grades 2-4--and for adults who love cats and imagination!

Very cute, and sweet story. I've read some negative reviews that didn't like how the mother cat pushed them away and seemed uncaring. I disagree. She cared enough that they were born with wings in the first place. I think she only wanted them to be safe, and pretended that she wouldn't miss them to get them to fly away.
We got the audio book from the library and my kids made me listen to it 8 times.

This book did not settle well with me. I hated the authors style (really choppy...was she trying to be clever somehow?). I had thought I might read this one aloud to my 3-year old, but I don't think I could bear to suffer through it again. It is short, so I guess there's that going for it. I wouldn't be opposed to, say, a 6-year old reading this on their own, but for my purposes the book is not a fit.

This is a very nice short story, told with equal parts firm hand and sweet tenderness from the pen of award-winning writer Ursula K. Le Guin. The concept behind "Catwings" is innovative, fun and fresh, and I enjoy reading it. I could very likely be persuaded to go two-and-a-half-stars for this book.
A nice performance by Ursula K. Le Guin this is, and one that I would fondly recommend.

This very short little book was a puzzle for me. I kept feeling there was some sort of agenda, but never did discover one. Then, I became lost in it. It reminds me of the Owls of Ga'hoole, where I knew I was reading a child's story, yet the subject was almost too dark for children. I was utterly dismayed that it ended so soon. I suppose that means it was very good. Of course, I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the series and now that I realize how (oddly, like a magazine story) short th More...

Ursula Le Guin is best known for her adult science fiction, so I was intrigued when I saw her in the childen's book section of the library. I wasn't disappointed. My son and I listened to it on CD (which was read by the author) and we both really enjoyed it. Granted, it's no Hardy Boys, but a story about cats with wings is pretty hard to pass up! This is the first in a series of four.

I adore cats and fantasy stories, good illustrations, and fun, quick stories. Generally, for my 6th graders who struggle with reading, this is usually a favorite among at least a few each year.

For myself, I think the premise is fun. It's a quick read, and not embarrassingly "young," like those books labelled with reading levels on the cover.