"Eleven Hungry Cats"

A Daughter's Favorite Book

Did you ever read a children’s book to your child so many times that you both had it memorized?

When my oldest daughter, Carrie, was two, her favorite book of all the books on her bookshelf was “Eleven Hungry Cats”. She wanted it read to her night after night and throughout the day.

I remember one night at bedtime, I was in a hurry, because her father and I had plans to meet some people at a restaurant for dinner.

The babysitter had already arrived, my husband was pacing the floor, and I still had almost three quarters of a book to read to my two year-old.

I thought, maybe just this one time, I could get away with turning two pages at once every now and again to speed things up.

I will always remember the last words I read to her, when I first turned two pages at the same time, " ... then we can each have a piece of the part we like best ..."

I had just started to read again when Carrie said, "Mommy, wait. You forgot some of it.” Then she began to recite the words right where I had left off, two pages before.

Slowly I turned each page. Proud, awed, and with tears running down my cheeks, I listened intently, following along as Carrie continued, word for word, page by page, all the way to the last page of the book.

My daughters are all adults now, with children of their own. Heck, four of my eleven grandchildren are even adults now, but that changes nothing. I will never forget my oldest daughter’s favorite book. Her two sisters loved it, too, just not quite as much as Carrie did.

“Eleven Hungry Cats”, by Noboru Baba, published January 1, 1970. Available on Amazon.com.

“Eleven hungry cats are determined to catch the big fish that sometimes sings lullabies to himself at night.”

It truly is a classic for children and I’m proud to say, I also knew it by heart, word for word ... still do.

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