Joyce McDonald author
Joyce McDonald author
Joyce McDonald author

Homebody

Homebody

illus­trat­ed by Karl Swan­son
Put­nam Juve­nile, 1991

Please check your local library or used book­seller for this book.

ABOUT THE BOOK

One moon­less night, a thin gray cat watched from the bush­es as the Pee­ble fam­i­ly packed up their belong­ings and stole away, leav­ing her behind. Days came and went, and no one returned. But the gray cat stayed close to the house, sleep­ing on the emp­ty porch. Because home was home. And that was that.

But soon a strange truck arrived. Joe the builder and his son Bri­an began work to trans­form the rick­ety, ram­shackle house into a cozy new home. They did­n’t notice the gray cat at first, and she hid in secret, watch­ing. She was­n’t about to give up her home, but maybe, just maybe, she’d share it.

REVIEWS

“The sto­ry is told in a fresh, lucid style that effec­tive­ly dra­ma­tizes the famil­iar sit­u­a­tion; Swan­son’s soft full-col­or art, reflect­ing the shad­ows and evening light in which the cat con­ceals her­self, extends the qui­et­ly poignant tone.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Rather dark hued, real­is­tic, and metic­u­lous full- or dou­ble-page col­ored-pen­cil draw­ings with inset text cre­ate a warm set­ting for this sto­ry of aban­don­ment and com­pas­sion. Home­body, as the cat is final­ly named, is sleek, inde­pen­dent, and char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly cat­like in both tex­tu­al and visu­al por­tray­al. A good choice for read­ing aloud and dis­cussing the sto­ry’s mes­sage of con­cern.” (Vir­ginia Opocen­sky, for­mer­ly at Lin­coln City Libraries, NE, School Library Jour­nal)