Pulling On A Cat's Tale: Wanda Gag

When I was over at John’s house yesterday, I was somehow reminded of an old childhood book about ‘millions and billions and trillions of cats.’ It was everywhere when I was a kid; I think I even remember it in a sort of ‘pan and scan’ reading session on Captain Kangaroo. I figured I’d better pin it down for myself while I could. I remembered the author’s unusual name, which is not common for me with childhood reading.

“Wanda Hazel Gág (/ˈɡɑːɡ/ GAHG; March 11, 1893 – June 27, 1946) was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Two of her books were awarded Newbery Honors and two received Caldecott Honors. The New York Public Library included Millions of Cats on its 2013 list of 100 Great Children's Books. Millions of Cats, had been developed from a story that Gág had written to entertain the children of friends. It was published in 1928.  Millions of Cats won a Newbery Honor award in 1929, one of the few picture books to do so. It entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.”

“The hand-lettered text, done by the author's brother, tells the story of an elderly couple who live comfortably, but realize that they are very lonely. The wife wants a cat to love, so her husband sets off in search of a beautiful one to bring home to her. After travelling far away from home, he finds a hillside covered in "cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats..." This rhythmic phrase is repeated several other times throughout the story.” – Wikipedia.

But he can’t decide which is most beautiful, so he ends up taking them all home. But as his wife points out, they cannot take care of them all. So, they announce that they will take only the most beautiful of them all and leave it to the cats themselves to decide which that one is. This leads to an almighty fight among the clustered felines, which becomes so violent the couple withdraw into their house. When things get quiet, they finally emerge to find the trillions of felines have disappeared. “They sadly conclude that the cats have eaten each other up in their jealous fury.” But they find one scrawny cat alive and hiding, which did not consider itself beautiful enough to fight. They feed and take care of it, and as it thrives, they conclude it was indeed the most beautiful cat of all.

While researching this memory I came across another of her books that struck a chord. This was The Funny Thing.

“The Funny Thing is Gág’s follow-up to her well-loved first book, Millions of Cats. It tells the story of a curious dragon-like “aminal” that eats children’s dolls. A kindly old man named Bobo cannot stand by and allow the Funny Thing to steal dolls from children. He entices it to eat “jum-jills,” a concoction he makes up from seven nut cakes, five seed puddings, two cabbage salads, and fifteen little cheeses, all rolled into little balls. A happy ending is assured when the Funny Thing discovers he loves jum-jills and is convinced that they will make his tail grow longer and his blue points grow more beautiful. He returns each day for the treats and never eats another doll.” – Amazon.