What do you think?
Rate this book
The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat
A hungry cat eats everyone he sees, until he swallows the little old woman who owns him and she takes steps to put a stop to his gluttony
- GenresPicture BooksChildrens
24 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1989
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 30, 2012
I have read many versions of “The Greedy Cat” which was a Scandinavian adaptation that came out in 1909 and one of my favorite versions of this tale was Margaret Read MacDonald’s adaptation called Fat Cat. Now, I had picked up another version of the classic folktale called “The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat” which was written by Nancy Polette along with illustrations by Frank Modell and in this tale, a greedy cat ends up eating everything in its path until it swallowed the old woman and mayhem ensures! “The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat” is a fantastic adaptation of the old folktale that fans of the “The Greedy Cat” will enjoy!
When an old woman leaves the house and tells her cat to not eat the sixteen cupcakes that she baked, the cat ended up eating the cupcakes anyway and goes out of the house. While the cat is out of the house, he meets up with a man and his pig and a wedding procession and he ends up eating them up. When the cat finally comes back home and the old woman realizes what the cat has done, she tells the cat to get out of the house. But, then the cat decides that the old woman looks tasty and then eats her up!
Can the old woman and everyone that the cat ate get out of the cat’s belly?
I have always loved the folktale “The Greedy Cat,” so seeing so many different variations of this tale was a treat for my reading soul! Nancy Polette has done an excellent job at retelling this ancient folktale as the story is much more simplistic than its earlier interpretation. I loved that in this interpretation we have an old woman who stands up to the cat while in the other version of this folktale Fat Cat, there was a mouse who lived with the cat and I enjoyed seeing the different roommates that the cat lives with in each adaptation. Also, the idea about a cat eating up everyone he meets up with was quite outrageous and interesting at the same time and it is that surreal aspect that I find in many folktales that makes me really enjoy reading various folktales, including this one! Frank Modell’s illustrations slightly resemble James Stevenson’s illustrations as they are simplistic yet humorous at the same time. I loved the illustrations of the cat itself as it is gray and large and the scene where the cat starts eating everyone and grows bigger was done extremely well in detail.
Parents should know that the scenes of the cat eating people who get in his way might be a bit disturbing for smaller children. However, in this version, the illustrations are shown in a less menacing way, so small children might be able to get through this book. But parents should still read this book before they read it to their children.
Overall, “The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat” is a fantastic retelling of the ancient folktale that many fans of folklore will enjoy for many years! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the scenes of the cat eating the people might scare smaller children.
Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog
When an old woman leaves the house and tells her cat to not eat the sixteen cupcakes that she baked, the cat ended up eating the cupcakes anyway and goes out of the house. While the cat is out of the house, he meets up with a man and his pig and a wedding procession and he ends up eating them up. When the cat finally comes back home and the old woman realizes what the cat has done, she tells the cat to get out of the house. But, then the cat decides that the old woman looks tasty and then eats her up!
Can the old woman and everyone that the cat ate get out of the cat’s belly?
I have always loved the folktale “The Greedy Cat,” so seeing so many different variations of this tale was a treat for my reading soul! Nancy Polette has done an excellent job at retelling this ancient folktale as the story is much more simplistic than its earlier interpretation. I loved that in this interpretation we have an old woman who stands up to the cat while in the other version of this folktale Fat Cat, there was a mouse who lived with the cat and I enjoyed seeing the different roommates that the cat lives with in each adaptation. Also, the idea about a cat eating up everyone he meets up with was quite outrageous and interesting at the same time and it is that surreal aspect that I find in many folktales that makes me really enjoy reading various folktales, including this one! Frank Modell’s illustrations slightly resemble James Stevenson’s illustrations as they are simplistic yet humorous at the same time. I loved the illustrations of the cat itself as it is gray and large and the scene where the cat starts eating everyone and grows bigger was done extremely well in detail.
Parents should know that the scenes of the cat eating people who get in his way might be a bit disturbing for smaller children. However, in this version, the illustrations are shown in a less menacing way, so small children might be able to get through this book. But parents should still read this book before they read it to their children.
Overall, “The Little Old Woman and the Hungry Cat” is a fantastic retelling of the ancient folktale that many fans of folklore will enjoy for many years! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the scenes of the cat eating the people might scare smaller children.
Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog
October 18, 2012
Woah!! This book is quite informative. If you cat is hungry
He
Will
Eat
You
!
That is what I took from this book.
Always feed your cat!!
If you don't...
He
Will
Eat
You
!
And if you tell kitty not to eat that....
He
Will
Eat
You
!
And if you stand in his way
He
Will
Eat
You
!
So, make sure you take a pair of scissors with you once ingested by a cat because you're going to need to cut your way out.
At least, that's what happened in this book.
Who'da thunk it? I had no idea that a kitty could perform minor surgery on himself after eating people. That is most awesome.
But what grossed me out is the kitty ate some cupcakes and after eating totes of people and then walking out of the belly of the beast, his owner left the kitty to stitch himself up while she fed his victims the kitty drooled on cupcakes he ate earlier.
What is that teaching the kids?
I think it just taught them to eat kitty barf!!
HAHAH!!
He
Will
Eat
You
!
That is what I took from this book.
Always feed your cat!!
If you don't...
He
Will
Eat
You
!
And if you tell kitty not to eat that....
He
Will
Eat
You
!
And if you stand in his way
He
Will
Eat
You
!
So, make sure you take a pair of scissors with you once ingested by a cat because you're going to need to cut your way out.
At least, that's what happened in this book.
Who'da thunk it? I had no idea that a kitty could perform minor surgery on himself after eating people. That is most awesome.
But what grossed me out is the kitty ate some cupcakes and after eating totes of people and then walking out of the belly of the beast, his owner left the kitty to stitch himself up while she fed his victims the kitty drooled on cupcakes he ate earlier.
What is that teaching the kids?
I think it just taught them to eat kitty barf!!
HAHAH!!
March 20, 2019
A cumulative tale of a little old woman's cat who ate just about everything in sight to include the old woman ...what a glutton he was, but in the end he got his comeuppance.
September 15, 2014
The story starts off with a little old woman and her grumpy little cat. It shows the two things what the little old woman does really well, which one of them, eventually saves her life. As she leaves her house, she tells her cat not to eat the cupcakes she baked and let them cool off. The selfish cat does not listen and eats all of her cupcakes right when she leaves. However, after all that, the cat is still hungry. So as it walks down a road, it eats everybody it sees. This includes a one-legged man, a squealing pig, a wedding procession, and their fine horses. The cat is out of control! Then finally, the old little woman comes and realizes that her cupcakes are gone. Angry, the woman yells to the cat to leave. However, if this cat already ate all these other people and animals, then what's stopping him from eating the lady? That's right, nothing. So he gobbles her up. As she enters the stomach, she finds all the other victims who are also trapped. The little lady does not panic, and just does what she's good at, which eventually saves the day.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the illustrations were perfect for this kind of story, and it represented the text very well. Also how from the beginning, it showed the face of the cat to be very demanding and evil, is something I caught right away. It hinted, if not already by the title, that the cat was very mean. Also using what the lady was good at the beginning at the end was very well thought of. There was a lot of humor into this book, and I personally think a lot of children would really enjoy reading this. The imagination of the story goes beyond than normal. How the cat all of a sudden gets big, and how there was so many unrealistic events happening all at once. It made the story really enjoyable.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the illustrations were perfect for this kind of story, and it represented the text very well. Also how from the beginning, it showed the face of the cat to be very demanding and evil, is something I caught right away. It hinted, if not already by the title, that the cat was very mean. Also using what the lady was good at the beginning at the end was very well thought of. There was a lot of humor into this book, and I personally think a lot of children would really enjoy reading this. The imagination of the story goes beyond than normal. How the cat all of a sudden gets big, and how there was so many unrealistic events happening all at once. It made the story really enjoyable.
February 20, 2014
Didn't like this version of the "Greedy Cat,” a Scandinavian folk tale. Although I thought the cupcakes was a nice addition.
Read
April 5, 2019One of our favorite books must be an alternate telling of this story, and I'm more fond of that one. It's called Gobble, Gobble, Slip Slop.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews