The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint & Charles Vess

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The Cats of Tanglewood Forest
by Charles de Lint & Charles Vess

This book is a longer, expanded version of the story these two told in A Circle of Cats It follows the same general plotline, with young girl, Lillian, who gets bitten by a snake and instead of dying gets turned magically into a non-dying kitten. In the original story, she gets help from some of the more mystical and wise forest creatures and is turned back into a girl. In this book, however, the moment she is transformed back, she goes to find her aunt. Only her aunt is bitten by the same snake instead of her (the great cosmic balance everything out). So she decides that if she's turned into a cat, like in what she thinks was only a dream foretelling the future, her aunt will be all right. As she copes with losing her aunt, she sets out to fix things. Her adventure takes her deeper into the forest and surrounding areas. She meets friends she thought she knew only in her "dream" and others who turn out not to be friends at all, actually. In the end, it turns out she hadn't been turned into a human at all and it was just a mirage to help her see what her future would be like. She ends up following the same path as the original story and finally turning human again.

I love this more complex version of the story, as it delves deeper into the magical world and accentuates the rules of folk tales: mainly that you can't get anything for free and genuine, selfless kindness is often rewarded. A longer story means more art as well. So many pages were decorated with the soft, detailed paintings of Charles Vess. I really enjoyed the way the words and art played off each other so often, setting the scene or setting the tone or changing up adventures. There were times during the story I couldn't imagine how it could keep going on, but then another interesting twist or turn came about.

This book was a joy to read.
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