Review of Cat Book (children’s): Prancie’s Prayer

About the author

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education and Psychology. (Amazon, 2024) According to her website, her husband and her began with one cat and from there it grew to 15. After years she realized that helping cats in any way she can, is her calling. “If I can write about something that happened to one of my cats and help another in the process then I will be happy.” (Pilch, 2024)

About the illustrator

The following information is according to the Bandas Educativas website (2024). From 2007-2011 he studied/trained in drawing at the Continental School. The Ninfa Comics label he founded in 2008. And “since 2016 he has been a comic professor at the CARNE art and design academy.” Also, “he is a stable cartoonist for the staff of the American children’s book publishing house Mirror Publishing where he has published 40 books.”

Summary

An orange cat finds herself homeless and cold before Christmas. She finds a family outside setting up a nativity set. What will she do? What will happen to her? Will someone help her?

My Own Review:

I stumbled upon this book’s mention on a random website (I don’t even remember now which one). What piqued my interest was a story about a cat that involved a nativity scene, and was based on a true story. I looked up the book on amazon and decided it was one I wanted to buy and read.

Appeal

Right at the beginning of the story a problem is presented: homeless kitty. This pulls you right into the story to continue reading and find out what happens to her. The story ends with a happily ever after for kitty Prancie, which I always prefer in a story.

Artwork

The layout of this book is such that every page has an illustration along with some text (total of 22 pages of illustrations). The pictures match and follow the story. The artwork is realistic in that everything can easily be identified.

I like the artwork (it actually reminds me a little of the original tv Scooby-Doo cartoon, which I loved as a kid – even though it’s about a dog and not a cat!). I like how the illustrator drew the people and cats. And I like the colors that are used and how they are used in scenes. For example, night scenes when there would be no light are shades of grayish-blue, clearly indicating the setting is in the dark.

And overall, the pictures are fairly realistic (not majorly cartoonish), even thought this is a children’s book. There is one picture that stood out to me as being way more cartoonish compared to the rest of the book. In that illustration the orange kitty is sitting in the snow with her front legs wrapped around her drawn up knees. This posture is not how a real cat naturally sits. But the text reads, “She was cold, alone and scared.” And since this posture is how a human would sit in that circumstance, the illustration clearly portrays the situation to a child reading the book, and does a good job of matching the text with the picture.

Characters

Right away you root for this hungry, orange kitty to find a home out of the cold. Prancie as the main character tends to stand out more on the pages that also include other cats, because she is orange and the others are more muted colors (white, brown, gray).

Bigger Meaning

There are several morals that are learned from this story.

Moral: Abandoning a cat is bad/mean

In the story we learn her backstory, how the orange kitty had been dumped in the winter forest by her previous family. The story shows this is bad because the kitty is now cold, hungry, and scared: it’s winter and she can’t survive there. She leaves the forest and even when she reaches houses, she still can’t survive alone outside. She needs a warm house where she’ll be fed.

Moral: Even if a kitty has a ‘bad’ habit, it might not be all bad

Prancie has the morning habit of knocking things onto the floor, in order to wake her humans so that they will feed her. From her history we learn this habit is why she was abandoned by her previous owners (she broke something). When she does this at the house of the people who have (at this point temporarily) taken her in, it turns out to be a good thing; because the power is out so the alarm didn’t work to wake them for work. These new people see her as smart, because of it.

Moral: Pray to Jesus when you need help

In the story the little girl Sarah says, “At Sunday school, the teacher said we can pray to Jesus when we have a problem and that must be what she did” (referring to Prancie’s problem of being homeless). Sarah’s aunt and uncle agree that Jesus did help, because they’ve decided to give Prancie a forever home. And that night Prancie prays, thanking Jesus for helping her.

But I have to note that despite Sarah saying, “that must be what she did”, Prancie never actually prays about her circumstance while she’s homeless; so it doesn’t seem like this moral is carried as neatly throughout the story, as it would have been had the kitty prayed. Since Prancie is an animal, this could be the reason she doesn’t pray in the beginning – except she does go on to say a thank you prayer at the end. While homeless she does sleep in the outdoor nativity, next to the baby Jesus; this isn’t a prayer, but Jesus is part of the comprehensive story.

Moral: Thank Jesus when He helps you

Prancie was homeless, in her wandering she found some people who took her in, and she prays thanks to Jesus for helping her find this forever home.

Other Notes

On the back cover of the book it says, “the story is loosely based on how the author’s cat arrived at her doorstep” (Pilch, 2018). I was curious which details are true, and learned some answers by reading the author’s blog.

From Ellen Pilch’s blog “15andmeowing”, these are the details that match the storybook. The author and her husband had an orange tabby named Prancie. Answering the comments in a 2016 post she said, “in the morning she knocks items off the bureau to wake us up.” In a 2018 blog post she wrote, “Prancie’s Prayer is based on her true story of how she appeared at our outdoor nativity on a cold winter day.” In another post she reminisced, “up until a few years ago, she did prance around like she was dancing“. (2020)

I was sad to learn Prancie passed away January 2020; the author and her husband had given Prancie a forever home for 15 years (Pilch, 2020).

My Conclusion

My conclusion is: the story is good, the illustrations are appealing, and the morals are important. I like it as an adult and believe it has appeal for kids as well. It’s a good Christmas story, featuring the nativity and Jesus (the true reason for Christmas).

Editions