Maggie the Cat Who Came Home for Christmas: Read Outloud Chapter Book
Children’s Book
Date Published: Sept. 14th 2023
Publisher: Jan-Carol Publishing, Inc.
Delightful illustrations bring you inside Grandpa Charlie Green’s mountainside farmhouse. Join Maggie the cat, Pip the goat, Grandpa Charlie Green, Daddy, and of course, little Wilhelmina Olive Blessing, as she tells us this sweet wintertime story. What do they do to get little Maggie home?
Join the fun. Read out loud yourself or read along with others! You will love the story of Maggie, the cat who comes home for Christmas.
Julie’s Review:
My son and I read this together, he’s 8 and a cat lover like me. Overall, he wants to say he liked the story and especially all the fun things Wilhelmina got to do at Grandpa’s house, especially with the adorable little goat Pip. He wasn’t worried about the cat because the title already gave away the ending, so he knew it would all be OK. Though we did talk about how sad we were that Maggie the cat was out lost in the cold and scary new place. He also had a complaint about a sentence with too many ands and not enough commas. He’s my kid 🙂 We also didn’t know what a Lhasa Apso was (the book never mentioned this was a dog) so I had to look it up. I mean we were talking about cats, goats, cows, it could have been anything. I also didn’t understand what “ragging it” meant for harmonica playing and Google was no help. So I agree with my kid about the need for maybe a bit more editing.
My turn, I have some questions. What adult who owns a cat would ever open the door and let their cat be chased out of the house in a new place by a strange new animal they just met? Does this sound like a solid idea to anyone? My son and I, reading that chapter, were perplexed why Daddy would ever open that door. We were talking about it so passionately, me and my son, that my husband walked in and asked us if he was in trouble. HA! So the book lost some points on that uninspired plot device.
I really enjoyed all the fun activities Wilhelmina did at Grandpa’s house (though I thought it super silly how she kept referring to everyone with their full name). I wish there were more illustrations. The book blurb mentions illustrations in the very first sentence, but there are all of 2 inside the book, if we don’t count the kitty picture before and after all the chapters. I did like the 2 illustrations especially the first one of Grandpa’s house, it’s quite detailed. The writing itself was simple enough for a young reader (aside from some bigger words or concepts we didn’t know).
I also liked the way they came up with an idea to help Maggie the cat find her way back. Scents are so important and the idea that little Wilhelmina came up with was brilliant.
About the Author
Julia spent many winters in the mountains along with her little dog, Chloe, and her sweet husband, Kent. She continues to live in Atlanta, but her heart is really in those woods.
One of her favorite things ever was hearing her first graders read aloud. She sometimes wrote for the government and companies, and later wrote descriptions of homes. She even spent time as what is called a roustabout!
Today, she presents her first ever storybook! She hopes many children will read the story aloud! She continues to visit her mountainside cabin often. She lives in Atlanta along with Kent and two sweet cats named Rigby and Linus. One of these days, she’s hoping to get a little goat.
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