I really liked this book because I collect beckoning cats and it was really interesting to learn about how the beckoning cat came about in Japan. The plot in this story was very engaging because in the beginning it showed a poor monk bringing a stray cat into his home and I was wondering how that would introduce the idea of a beckoning cat. It became more suspenseful when a samurai was lost in a bad storm until he saw a shadow of a beckoning cat which led him to shelter. The samurai then shared riches with the monk and the cat lived a happy life. The beckoning cat is now known as a symbol of good fortune in Japan. I believe this story promotes the big idea of bringing good fortune to the people around you, even if you do not have much to give. This is shown when the monk takes the stray cat in even though he is poor and eats leftover food scraps himself. This then leads to good fortune for the monk because the beckoning cat leads the wealthy samurai to the monk’s monastery. ( )

A warm, enjoyable retelling of the Japanese folktale about how the beckoning cat became a symbol of luck and prosperity. Lovely illustrations. ( )

This is a Taoist tale. It tells the story behind the luck that is supposed to be associated with a cat figurine with a raised paw. ( )

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