The Catwings Complete Collection, confidence-building fun for young readers

Confidence makes doing anything easier. Ask an elementary-aged kid if they can dance and they’ll contort six ways from Saturday. Ask an adult to dance and you’re likely to get a muted stare and a wavering hand in search of a drink. The same can also be said for asking if someone is an artist. Young readers need to gain confidence early too, the sooner that they realize that they can read, the easier it is for them to jump into more age-appropriate text and read to learn, instead of learning to read. The Catwings Complete Collection has the four classic books in the series from Ursula K. Le Guin in one package.

As someone who went to high school in the 80’s it feels odd to refer to a book that came out in 1988 as ‘classic’. The classic things that came out in the 80s I’m familiar with, like Goonies, Transformers, TMNT, and so forth. Catwings is a book series that’s completely alien to me, Alien, is a classic movie also. This children’s book series is brand new to my radar, but after reading even one chapter from the debut book, Catwings, it’s apparent why the books are considered ‘classic’.

Le Guin is known more for her fictional writing that borders on science-fiction, with enough wonder and surprises to make them imagination food for the masses. She’s an author whose works I hadn’t read until now, but hearing how others describe her adult books makes me want to read them. It’s that, plus how the stories in The Catwings Complete Collection are paced and presented.

Each of these books is a great goodnight book in the vein of The Princess Bride. A great good-night book doesn’t have to be an illustrated book that’s heavy on illustrations and should be read in one sitting. Like The Thief of Always for upper elementary readers, it can be a chapter book that vastly entertains them, while allowing their narrative abilities to become stronger by following a story. Catwings does that in a way that I’ve never seen before for kindergarten and early elementary school audiences.

There’s no chance that younger readers will be able to read the books without assistance. Each chapter in the books is around seven pages long and has a couple of realistic illustrations in them too. Catwings is intended to be read aloud for those through third grade and then maybe have those fourth and fifth graders read the books themselves.

The premise of kittens born with wings is a silly one that immediately grabs children’s attention. Those young ages, even those surly boys who tend to stay far away from books or story time, will give in to their inner curiosity. The kittens are born to a wingless cat. When momma cat sees the dangers that they’ll encounter in the city she sends them away. They find a farm where they’re able to make new friends and deal with their wings.

Jane on Her Own is one of the books in this collection and deals with one of the kittens who becomes bored with life on the farm and decides to fly to the city. Her curiosity leads her to being captured and then forced to perform on television, just as her siblings said that she would. She enjoys performing, but not being held captive and being unable to do things on her schedule. In Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, another book in the series, the group meets a new cat friend who doesn’t have wings. Alexander is momentarily bemused at his new friends, but they all figure things out and get along happily in the forest.

There are other lessons in the books, but if they were merely books on lessons then kids would see through them like a cheap suit. Instead, these are fantastical stories about a group of flying cats that have the same characteristics, minus the wings, that their target audience does. They meet new people, they’re viewed differently, they don’t have parents, they need to get along, they need to do stuff and most importantly, they’re cats. Cats are the Rosetta Stone in getting lower elementary-aged kids to have an interest in anything.

The Catwings Complete Collection is a great place to get kindergarten audiences interested in chapter-length storytelling. The chapters are short enough to hold their attention and the illustrations are detailed enough so that children will want to hold onto the book after you’re done reading to them. It’s then when they’ll try to sneak ahead to the next chapter, work on those sight words, and start building up to reading chapter books on their own.

The Catwings Complete Collection is by Ursula K. Le Guin with illustrations by S. D. Schindler and is available on Antheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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