All this is wonderful, but then comes the really scary part towards the end, when Peter becomes a boy again.

I don’t want to give away all of their adventures, but they have a lot of them. He has always been a courageous little chap, but he also becomes more thoughtful and giving. And he learns so well from her that there comes a point where he is able to help her as she has helped him. Sometime later, Peter, learns of Jennie’s secret sorrow. But he makes his way to Jennie, the heroine of the book, who generously licks his wounds, shares her food and instructs him in the ways of cats. Almost at once, he is beaten by a hard hearted cat. It is so frightening, all the noise, all the creatures and things running about above you - trying to stay out of the way of wheels and feet and other dangerous things. Peter, the boy, finds out all about what it is like to live as a cat without a family to take care of him. Because not only do they seem to have no idea of how hard it can be for a cat in this harsh world, but they seem to regard all acts of courage or nobility as belonging to their species alone. Have you ever wished that someone could live a little of your life, so that they could understand your trials and point of view? I have to say that this is a feeling that we cats have regularly, especially in regard to those whom I will refer to, henceforth, as the Dominant Species. Soon, his dear Nanny finds him, and not recognizing him, tosses him outside into the cruel city of London. He is dreadfully hurt, but awakes in a bed, and then realizes he is all right, but has turned into a cat. He is so excited he has missed seeing the truck which runs him down.

A boy, one of the nicer sort, who loves cats but is not allowed to have one, runs across the street to pet a cat. It is a story that it at one and the same time a beautiful dream, and a horrible nightmare. I am speaking as a cat here, about this book, the Abandoned. He went on to publish more than forty books for adults and children, including The Snow Goose (1941) and The Poseidon Adventure (1969), the basis for the blockbuster movie of the same name. Lou Gehrig: Pride of the Yankees (1942), a biography of the baseball icon, inspired the Academy Award–nominated film starring Gary Cooper.īorn in New York City to an Italian father and an Austrian mother, Gallico left the United States in 1950 and lived the rest of his life abroad, with stops in England, Monaco, and Antibes, France, among numerous other locales. In 1937, at the height of his fame, Gallico quit his column to devote himself to writing fiction.

Over the course of his fourteen years as a daily columnist and editor, he took a knockout punch from Jack Dempsey, caught Dizzy Dean’s fastball, teed off against Bobby Jones, and founded the Golden Gloves boxing tournament. Paul Gallico (1897–1976) began his writing career at the New York Daily News, where he became one of the best-known sports journalists in America.

Jennie gallico