THE EVERYWHERE CAT
By William Corbin
Illustrated by Consuelo Joerns
Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1970
One of the things I love about books is the randomness with which they appear in my life. Take the picture book THE EVERYWHERE CAT, for example. Until last week I had never heard of it. This is not too surprising since it has been out of print for years, possibly decades. But someone recently donated an old hardcover copy of this book to our library book sale. No one bought it. And then the library donated all the unsold books to the elementary school in town. Apparently the school librarian didn’t want this book either, because it ended up on the “free books” table. Late last week my son picked it up and took it home.
It’s an adorable little story that explores the concept of irony. The everywhere cat is simply everywhere: in the protagonist’s cellar, in her yard, on her bed, in her drawer, everywhere … until that one moment when she really, really needs a cat. (Consuelo Joerns, the illustrator, came up with a truly funny scene depicting just such a moment. I won’t give it away completely, but it involves an army of rodents.) Aside from the limited-color art and the dated clothing on the girl in the story, this book could be on the shelf at the local bookstore today. And but for a string of seemingly random decisions on the part of other people—from the original owner to the book sale shoppers to the book sale coordinators to the school librarian to my son—I might never have seen it.
I wonder what random book will make its way onto my desk tomorrow.
Best,
Loree
Ps. Just for kicks, I checked amazon.com. You can pick up a used copy of THE EVERYWHERE CAT for two bucks!