The Cat at the Wall

A remarkable and thought-provoking new novel set on Israel's West Bank, by the author of The Breadwinner.

On Israel's West Bank, a cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house that has just been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.

Should she help him?

After all, she's just a cat.

Or is she?

It turns out that this particular cat is not used to thinking about anyone but herself. She was once a regular North American girl who only had to deal with normal middle-school problems -- staying under the teachers' radar, bullying her sister and the uncool kids at school, outsmarting her clueless parents.

But that was before she died and came back to life as a cat, in a place with a whole different set of rules for survival.

When the little boy is discovered, the soldiers don't know what to do with him. Where are the child's parents? Why has he been left alone in the house? It is not long before his teacher and classmates come looking for him, and the house is suddenly surrounded by Palestinian villagers throwing rocks, and the sound of Israeli tanks approaching.

Not my business, thinks the cat. And then she sees a photograph, and suddenly she understands what happened to the boy's parents, and why they have not returned. And as the soldiers begin to panic, and disaster seems certain, she knows that it is up to her to diffuse the situation.

But what can a cat do? What can any one creature do?

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

Author: Deborah Ellis
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Published: 09/01/2014
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.20w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781554984916
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.8
Point Value: 4
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 168927 / Cat at the Wall


Award: Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2014
School Library Journal 09/01/2014 pg. 119
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 10/01/2014
Quill & Quire 10/01/2014 pg. 37
Booklist 09/15/2014 pg. 56
Publishers Weekly 10/06/2014
New York Times Book Review 11/09/2014 pg. 35

About the Author
Deborah Ellis is best known for her Breadwinner books -- a series that has been published in 25 languages and earned more than $1 million in royalties to benefit Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan and Street Kids International. She has won the Governor General's Award, the Ruth Schwartz Award, the University of California's Middle East Book Award, Sweden's Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work. She recently received the Ontario Library Association's President's Award for Exceptional Achievement, and she has been named to the Order of Ontario. She lives in Simcoe, Ontario.