Blitzkat, by Robert Westall

(033039861X)

I started reading this with Sparky in May (I think), taking turns: he read a page, then I read a page. Now that I finished it--alone--I realize that in every way, it's way ahead of him. Westall is categorized as a YA author, but this book needs to be read by someone who knows an awful lot about the events around WWII in England. Probably not too many teens have that knowledge. I can see it being used as a literature component in a history class, though.

Anyway. The story follows Lord Gort, a cat whose owner has been sent over to the Continent in the early months of the war, before Dunkirk. The cat can sense her owner's location, and spends most of the book trying to find him. Along the way, she is cared for, and brings good fortune to, many people. "Good fortune" isn't really the right word, just that she's sort of a talisman for postivism instead of all the awfulness of war.

In spite of being a minor WWII buff, I don't know that much about the war years in England (beyond the Land Girls movement), so this was a surprisingly educational book. The cat spends some of her time in Coventry, and I won't spoil the effect she has on that city's tragedy, but it is moving.

I finished this just before going to England. At both York and Lincoln, chapels have been created to honor the veterans and servicemen killed in the RAF and USAAC bombing raids that began in that area. I was reminded over and over while in the U.K. of this book. And it was all just happy accident that I was reading it the day we left. I almost want to read it again now that we're home so that I can pay closer attention.

Good book.