The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

The Cheshire Cheese Inn makes the best cheese in all of Victorian England. As a result, it attracts some very prominent patrons including author Charles Dickens. It also attracts a huge number of mice. The Cheshire Cheese is badly in need of a cat.

As luck would have it, Skilley, an alley cat with a shameful secret, is badly in need of a home. So when he learns that the Inn is looking for a mouser, he quickly offers his services.

This charmer of a story is aimed at middle graders but it is definitely one which will appeal to all ages. It is a wonderful tale full of memorable and quirky characters who will stay with you long after you close the covers. And the marvelous black and white illustrations which pepper the pages add to its appeal.

Although it is not a Christmas tale, it is so full of good cheer (but not in a schmaltzy way) that it would make the perfect gift for your little reader. Before you wrap it though, you really should read it yourself. However, I recommend that you wait until the kids are asleep all snug in their beds because, once you begin this book, I guarantee you won't want to put it down.

Animal stories. Done well and you get something like Charlotte's Web or The Incredible Journey. Done poorly and you cannot name for me a more annoying genre. Some days it seems to me that every great children's author eventually tries their hand at the style to varying degrees of success. Burned one time too many I've taken to just avoiding books with animals in them altogether unless there's something that seems to be extraordinary about them. So when The Cheshire Cheese Cat came into my possession, I was inclined to put it aside. Then a friend and an editor both assured me it was lovely. And then there was the fact that Carman Agra Deedy, author of such great picture books as 14 Cows for America had co-authored it. Finally, it's not every day that the great Barry Moser illustrates a new work of middle grade fiction. Add in the fact that there's a Charles Dickens connection and I cracked. I read it. And reader, it was worth the reading. Not that it convinced me to rethink my animals-in-books opinions, but at least I may be a hair more open minded in the future . . . maybe.

The Cheshire Cheese Inn is a place of secrets. It seems that anyone who works or lives there has one. For Skilley the alleycat, his is a shame that has caused him to strike up a deal with the local mouse population that haunt the inn's famous cheese production room. For Pip, his mouse friend, it has to do with the mysterious creature that lives amongst the mice, insisting on its own freedom. For the cook it's a secret about the cheese, and for the barmaid the same. Only the famous writer Charles Dickens, a man that patronizes the inn, seems secret free. And yet, he too harbors a difficulty and a shame. It'll take Skilley's deal with Pip to set the spark that causes all these secrets to come to light, and it may possibly save the very monarchy of England as well!

As with any book starring the furry, it all comes down to personality. If you don't believe in the characters then you haven't anything to connect to. Here, the critters are infinitely interesting. Pip's oversized vocabulary makes for a nice side element in the tale. If Skilley comes off as a kind of hired muscle, Pip is the brains behind the operation. From his first utterance of words like "sepulcher" and "perpetual internment" you can see that he is a cut above the general mouse population. Interestingly, once Pip start throwing out one hundred dollar words, the book follows suit. I caught words and phrases like "stygian darkness" bandied about without comment. It doesn't grate, though, and such words and phrases are understandable within context. By the way, I just referred to Skilley as a kind of thug, but in fact there are depths to him. I was particularly fond of a moment when Pip mentions that his family died in a cleaver-related accident. Thinks the cat, "Cleavers, in his experience, rarely acted alone."

For the writing, you see, is quite good here. There are passages that lift it above the usual children's literary pack. At one point Skilley has treated Pip abominably and he is told to own up to it. "It is not enough to say you are sorry. You must utterly own the terrible thing you have done. You must cast no blame on the one you've injured. Rather, accept every molecule of the responsibility, even if reason and self-preservation scream against it. Then, and only then, will the words `I am sorry' have meaning." That's just a great passage (and not bad advice either).

And then we run into the inevitable question as to whether or not kids will get the Dickens references in this book. Will they understand that the great author himself is attempting to write the first sentence in A Tale of Two Cities? Will they appreciate that a cat with the personality of Bill Sykes is given the adorable name of Oliver by a deluded barmaid? Or that a delightful girl of questionable mortality goes by the name of Nell? Yeah, probably not. And you know what? Who cares? If the book's storyline hinged on the reader getting these little elements then it might matter. It would also, in such a case, be a useless book for children. Far better to slide the little references in here and there. If a parent or a teacher reading this book with a kid wants to tell them what book they come from, that's fantastic. But it's hardly required knowledge.

I don't know how to draw a mouse with an overbite. Do you? I don't. Seems to me that a character like Pip would take a delicate hand. So Barry Moser's work on this book is fantastic (as you would expect). It is also careful. He gives his animals a full range of personality and emotions without turning them into anthropomorphized cartoon characters. The mice look like mice, the cats cats, etc. His humans, for their part, are a perfect array of Dickensian character studies. They're a little more caricature-ish, but then so are the people who populate Dickens' books. Of these people, Moser's Nell is the most impressive. You look at her image and you instantly like her. You simply do. Somehow, the artist has managed to tap into something very real in this girl. You feel as though she's based on a real person. One that lives and breathes. There's just something about her.

I'm not sure how two authors go about collaborating on a book like this one. Deedy and Wright's co-authorship has to be shared with Barry Moser's fantastic images, though. Without these three working in tandem together the book would not be half as interesting as it is. This is a true collaboration. One that mixes history, animals, mystery, and literary references in abundance. Kids of all ages, genders, and stripes will take to the book. It also happens to make for a handsome readaloud. Recommend it to any child looking for just a good read. It is, precisely, that.

Ages 7-12.

Wright drawings by Barry Moser
Stories will talking animals are hit or miss for me (usually miss) I can't articulate why only a few work for me or what it is I like but I know it when I see it. Like Underneath by Appelt or Whittington by Armstrong this hits the mark.

The Cheshire Cheese Cat is co-author Deedy's first early reader and an excellent one at that. The story is a fun hat tip to Charles Dickens featuring a cat named Skilley with a secret. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is an inn known for having the best cheese in London. They also have a mouse problem. Skilley the only street cat that doesn't have a taste for mice bought into to Ye Olde to kept the population down. This is perfect for Pip, the mouse in charge. Pip and Skilley make an arrangement so everyone is happy. Everything is going well until Pinch a very vicious cat is hired. Pip and Skilley have to be extra careful that their secret isn't discovered.

When I started reading this I couldn't put it down. It's one of those books that makes me wish I had a fireplace to read by. Moser's illustrations which are sprinkled throughout are lovely. Along with the short chapters make this a great choice for a read aloud. There's another layer to this story involving a Raven that makes it that much more intigruing. The Cheshire Cheese Cat has everything, adventure, unlikely friendship, danger. and beautiful language.

"Scat, cat!" A broom came down hard out of London's cold and fog. Startled, Skilley leapt sideways and the broom whiffled empty air. The cat however, refused to scat. He eyed the dead fish then the broom, calculating the distance between the two. "Off now, you thieving moggy," the fishmonger shrilled. As if reading his thoughts, she kicked the fish under her stall and cocked the broom for another swing. Fishwives. the curse of London cats. With a flick of his peculiar tail, Skilley turned his back to the woman, putting all the disdain he could muster into the sway of his hips."

Deedy and Wright have collaborated to create a wonderful story. A 2011 favorite that I believe is a serious contender for the Newbery.

Three Starred Reviews - Kirkus, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.