Hesse, Karen. The cats in Krasinski Square. Illustrated by Wendy Watson. New York: Scholastic Press, 2004. ISBN: 978-0439435406.
Author Website: None
Illustrator Website: http://www.wendy-watson.com/
Awards: Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2005. California Young Readers Medal, Picture Books for Older Readers, 2007.
Media: Watercolor Paint on Paper
Use of Rhyme: (p. 8) “I have no food to spare. / The cats don’t care.”
Use of Personification: (p. 15) “the big room dances with light.”
Use of Repetition: (p. 11, p. 19) “I wear my Polish Look, / I walk my Polish Walk.”
Special Notations: Poem
Curricular Connection: History Social-Science Content Standards for California, Grade Five, Standard 10.8, Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II: 5. Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the European Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians.
Annotation: A young Jewish girl manages to pass as Polish and live just outside the Warsaw Ghetto walls. The girl befriends numerous stray cats that eventually play a role in a Jewish Resistance effort.
Personal Reaction: “I wear my Polish Look, / I walk my Polish Walk.” (p. 11) says the young, Jewish narrator passing for Polish in this moving story about the Warsaw Ghetto. In late 1939, the Jewish population in Warsaw was forced to live in an area just over one square mile in size, divided by a wall from the rest of Warsaw. During the next few years, the Gestapo committed atrocity after atrocity against the Jewish population in Warsaw. The Jewish Resistance fought back in spite of food shortages, overcrowding and disease in the Ghetto. Newbery Medal award-winner Hesse uses poetry and the viewpoint of a young girl who manages to pass for Polish and live just outside the Ghetto to tell this heartbreaking story. The girl has befriended dozens of stray cats and comes up with a plan to use the cats to disrupt the Gestapo’s (German police) efforts against the Jewish Resistance. The girl’s older sister, Mira, and her friends have coordinated a large-scale food smuggling scheme to help the people in the Ghetto. The girl gathers the cats and lets them loose in a train station to prevent the Gestapo from interfering with the food distribution to Ghetto residents. I was touched by the poetic quality that Hesse uses to tell a story that references a period of great horror. Watson’s watercolor illustrations in gray, red, orange and yellow hues support the beauty in the young girl’s actions and the bravery of the Jews who fought back against the Gestapo. An author note and historical note at the back of the book provide details about a real life incident involving cats in Warsaw that inspired Hesse to write this story, as well as factual background data about the Warsaw Ghetto.
