How Mr. Silver Stole the Show

by Kate Klise, M. Sarah Klise (Illustrator)

Overview

Everyone loves an underdog—especially when he’s a cat!

On a rainy morning in 1947, a small gray kitten wandered into the Hamilton Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, two days before the Greater St. Louis Cat Club Show.

A stray kitten. A fancy hotel. A serious contest for pedigreed cats. What could possibly go right?

Curl up with this heartwarming story based on a real-life stray cat who made international headlines just by showing up, being himself, and finding a little kindness. . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250356611
Publisher:	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	39 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Kate Klise and illustrator M. Sarah Klise are sisters who began making books together as children in the bedroom they shared in Peoria, Illinois. Their home was always filled with paper, art supplies, and cats, most of whom arrived as strays and quickly became beloved members of the Klise family. Since then, Kate and M. Sarah Klise have created more than thirty books for young readers, many inspired by animals. Kate’s books for Feiwel and Friends include Mystery on Magnolia Circle, Grounded, Homesick, and Stay: A Girl, a Dog, a Bucket List, also illustrated by M. Sarah Klise.
Kate Klise is the author of several picture books and novels, including Grounded and Homesick. She frequently collaborates with her sister, the illustrator M. Sarah Klise. Kate travels all over the country speaking to classrooms about her work. She lives in Norwood, Missouri.
M. Sarah Klise draws and paints in her studio in Berkeley, California. With her sister, Kate Klise, she previously collaborated on novels and the picture book Shall I Knit You a Hat?

Editorial Reviews

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Bestseller!

"Richly colored illustrations using acrylic gouache are eye-catching and filled with details youngsters will want to study. Based on a true story from 1947, Klise’s “rags to riches” tale of a homeless feline is heartwarming."—Booklist

"[K]itty charisma, based on a true story....this tale recounts the arrival of a small alley cat at the elegant Hamilton Hotel, just as the 1947 Greater St. Louis Cat Club Show is getting underway. Though given a hostile reception by the stuck-up cat owners (if not their well-groomed pets), the tiny stray not only gets a warm greeting and plenty of snacks from the hotel staff, but comes back at the show’s end to charm the judges into awarding a pair of blue ribbons and to win both a name and a home.... Purr-fect fare for cat lovers, with a bit of sensitivity training slipped in."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-08-12
An extreme case of kitty charisma, based on a true story.

With significant but logical embroidering, this tale recounts the arrival of a small alley cat at the elegant Hamilton Hotel, just as the 1947 Greater St. Louis Cat Club Show is getting underway. Though given a hostile reception by the stuck-up cat owners (if not their well-groomed pets), the tiny stray not only gets a warm greeting and plenty of snacks from the hotel staff, but comes back at the show’s end to charm the judges into awarding a pair of blue ribbons and to win both a name and a home from the hotel’s hostess, Marcella Duffy. As the author notes in an afterword, only the hotel staff would have included people of color at that time, and so it is that Duffy and all the human guests are white-presenting, while most of the bustling kitchen staff, led by a fictive chef and his daughter, are darker-skinned. Younger audiences may not notice the divide until it’s pointed out, but they’ll see it on a second run-through for sure, and the endpapers sandwiching this historical anecdote do offer a more racially diverse gallery of cat owners fondling their furry charges. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Purr-fect fare for cat lovers, with a bit of sensitivity training slipped in. (photo) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews