Cat Heaven

"The way to Cat Heaven is a field of sweet grass, where crickets and butterflies play!"
With a gentle, playful rhyme, Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant explores all the ways our beloved cats enjoy Cat Heaven, as she did for dogs in the bestselling companion book, DOG HEAVEN. Her shining artwork illustrates a world of peace for cats in Heaven, where no tree is too tall for exploring, where there is no lack of angels' laps for sleeping.
If your child wonders where his or her kitty goes after a happy life on Earth, they can rest assured that all cats "know where the angel cats fly. They'll run past the stars and the moon and the sun . . . to curl up with God in the sky."

God created Cat Heaven, with fields of sweet grass where cats can play, kitty-toys for them to enjoy, and angels to rub their noses and ears.

Visit Cat Heaven, the purr-fect place, where cats have an eternal supply of catnip, tuna, and warm laps.

Publishers Weekly

Those who liked Rylant's Dog Heaven will undoubtedly welcome this companion volume, which is similar in its themes and execution. The text, this time in rhyme, has the same complement of sentimentality; the art again consists of bright, cheery paintings rendered in a primitive style. Detractors, however, will note the same weaknesses present in the earlier volume. The language seems coy or precious: "The way to Cat Heaven/ is a field of sweet grass/ where crickets/ and butterflies play..../ There's just so much fun on the way!" The rhymes often strain: when a cat needs to "just simply ponder," Rylant says, "she will watch the old house/ where she once lived and wandered." Here God is multiculturalhis face alternates between pink, brown and beige on different pagesand he really likes cats. God sits reading in Cat Heaven, where cats "are so loved and spoiled/ God lets them all/ lie on His bed," and when he walks in his garden there is "a kitty asleep on His head." Whether or not this view of heaven will please the clergy or be helpful to children who have lost pets, Rylant's feel-good book is bound to appeal to adults whose taste in reading is dominated by a pronounced sweet tooth. A surer bet for Rylant fans is The Blue Hill Meadows (reviewed below). All ages. (Sept.)

Since that night, Rylant hasn’t stopped creating wonderful books. Her stories explore friendship, love, grief, and other mysteries, and often draw on her memories of growing up in Appalachia. “I get a lot of personal gratification thinking of those people who don’t get any attention in the world and making them really valuable in my fiction-making them absolutely shine with their beauty.”

She lives with her many pets in the Pacific Northwest.