The artwork for the book is by Yuko Shimizu
What is the book about?
Did you know cats could save books? You might think I’m crazy if I told you cats could save books because they’d be more likely to sleep all day or attack them but it is true cats can save books. Well it’s true in The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa and Translated by Louise Heal Kawai. This book starts off with Rentaro Natsuki, a Japanese high school student, at his Grandfarher’s funeral. He finds out he now owns his Grandfather’s bookshop. One day a cat comes into the bookstore and Rentaro quickly finds out that the cat can talk. The cat tells him that he needs help saving books. After Rentaro realizes that he didn’t fall asleep he agrees to go on an adventure with the cat. The back of the bookstore slowly transforms into a long hallway with blue lighting and Rentaro and the cat begin going through a series of labyrinths. Through the journey Rentaro not only helps the cat save books but learns things about grief and how books are treated. Would you help a cat save books?
The next part will have spoilers, you can scroll to the bottom of the page to skip them and see my final review score.
My brother's kitten Clyde doesn't like it when you try to interrupt his reading with spoilers.
What are my favorite things?
One of my favorite characters of the book is the orange tabby cat named Tiger. (Definitely not because he reminded me of my brother’s kitten Clyde.) The cat is very wise and thoughtful. Some of my favorite lines in the book are “Most people don’t get that obvious truth. They just go about their everyday lives, and yet ‘it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.'” It makes me think about how people can tell us lies all day long and those who just live their life without believing in their gut miss what is going on around them.
In each of the labyrinths Rentaro meets someone new who he has to try to persuade that they aren’t treating the books right. In the second labyrinth Rentaro meets someone who is cutting up books while blaring “Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony” on a cassette tape. He is cutting up the books so that people can speed read the books because people don’t have enough time to read books anymore. Rentaro decide to speed up the music to make the point that it sounds terrible that way and it’s not the way that the music is intended to be enjoyed. If you shorten a book to one to two words, yeah you can read the book, but it isn’t the way the author intended it to be read. If people want to read a book they will make time for it. I like that part because that concept can be applied to a lot of other things too. Do you make time to read books?
The last thing that I loved about this book is how Rentaro gets pulled into an extra labyrinth a couple of months after he finishes his quest. The cat tells him each person he met (including himself) is a soul of a book that is reread by a human several times and their soul is influenced by who reads its soul. The last person, or should I say book, helps Rentaro realize that a little bit of progress is better than none at all but you need to do the work because getting knowledge from the books doesn’t help much if you don’t put it to use.
Clyde wants to know.
What are my dislikes?
The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was the timeline. In the book Rentaro’s aunt tells him the moving truck will be there in a couple of days but then it is actually a month later. He is told that the truck will be there in the evening although it is Christmas Eve. I don’t know who helps anyone move on Christmas Eve unless it is an emergency. That leaaves me with a ton of other questions.
My final thoughts?
Overall I think the book is a wonderful light read to help someone ease back into reading. It is only 198 pages long and it is easy to follow along. I think it is suitable for someone who is 12 years old or older. Just like Rentaro it could help you deal with grief and be inspired to change the world. Do you think you will read this book?
My Score: