Minnie's Pet Cat

Leslie, Madeline, 1815-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 53K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Minnie's Pet Cat by Madeline LeslieAuthor: Leslie, Madeline, 1815-1893,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 4, 2009

Editor's review

Minnie's Pet Cat comes from the pen of the nineteenth-century American children's author Madeline Leslie (1815–1893) and is classed as juvenile literature; it is released as a free public-domain ebook by Project Gutenberg. Leslie wrote for children over many years, and her works mostly take family, character and everyday incidents as their subjects. This book centers on a little girl, Minnie, and her pet cat, and is a typical early children's story: short, plainly written, and using the details of daily life to convey gentle behavioral guidance. Its value for readers lies in two things: first, as an early specimen of English-language children's literature, it lets one observe the narrative methods and values of nineteenth-century children's books; second, its language is easy, making it suitable as introductory extensive reading for English learners. A caution is needed: the ideas in the book bear clear marks of their era, and where themes such as discipline and obedience arise, today's readers should read with a discerning eye rather than accept everything wholesale. On the whole it suits parent-child shared reading or independent extensive reading, but not readers expecting the humor and diverse perspectives of modern children's literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners at beginner to intermediate English level who want to try original children's books
Researchers and enthusiasts interested in the history of nineteenth-century children's literature
Parents who want to read short English stories with their children
Readers who like animal themes and prefer gentle narratives

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting the humor and diverse perspectives of modern children's literature
Collectors who need a fully illustrated edition or a paper binding
People sensitive to old-era ideas of discipline who are unwilling to read with discernment

Reading tips

Read through once to get the story, then do a second close reading, picking out unfamiliar words and period expressions.
When reading with a child, pause after each passage and ask the child to retell what Minnie and the cat did.
Note how the book judges children's behavior, and after reading discuss with your child whether such judgments still apply today.
The book is short; read one chapter at a time to keep the plot coherent.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What age of child is this book suitable for?

The materials do not state a recommended age. Judging by the text, it is an early children's story with plain language but in the original English, so it is better suited to upper-primary readers and above with some English foundation, or to younger children reading alongside a parent.

Does the book's content have period limitations?

As a nineteenth-century children's book, it involves ideas of discipline and obedience that bear clear marks of their era. Readers are advised to view it as a historical specimen, and when reading with a child, to discuss which practices no longer apply today.

Is this book connected to the author's other works?

The materials only show that the author, Madeline Leslie, was a nineteenth-century American children's author; they provide no information on links between this book and her other works. To understand her output as a whole, consult a list of her works separately.

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About the author

Leslie, Madeline, 1815-1893 Author

Madeline Leslie (Leslie, Madeline, 1815–1893) was a nineteenth-century author known for writing for children and families; details of her life are limited in publicly available sources, and she is known today mainly through the many works she left behind. Twenty of her works are held in this collection, most of them in the inspirational and coming-of-age category, including Minnie's Pet Cat, Little Frankie and his Mother, Bertie's Home or, the Way to be Happy, The Pearl of Peace or, The Little Peacemaker, The Lost Kitty, and Little Robins' Love One to Another. Judging from these titles and themes, her writing often centres on childhood life, family relationships, pets and nature, harmony and good deeds, gently conveying to young readers lessons of honesty, kindness, and happiness in simple language suited to reading together with parents, and is fairly representative of children's literature of her time.