A story of why there is no year of the cat in the cycle of th Chinese calendar. When the emperor decided a way to mark the years was needed he made a competition with the first 12 animals to arrive receiving a year in the calendar. Cat might have been one of the first but was pushed into dangerous water by rat. Rat came in first and cat didnt make it in time. Cat or its descendants never forgave Rat or his descendants.

Illustrations represented the culture beautifully. An interesting folktale probably unfamiliar to most readers. Could be the beginning of a fun art project or discussion about calendars and time.

This book explains why there is no year of the cat in the Chinese calendar.

Many years ago, the Chinese could tell the seasons of the year, but they had no way of telling what year events happened. The emperor proposed a race across a river and the first twelve animals to cross the river would have a year named after them and the animals would cycle every twelve years. Cat was the thirteenth animal to make it across, and rat was the first. That is why cats despise rats so much. This book was very interesting. I liked that tale behind why there are twelve animals that represent a Chinese New Year and how they switch and are ordered every year. The book would be very good to help explain tales to students and what they are. Good story to teach about the Chinese New Year and Chinese culture.

I liked this book for many reasons. First, I thought the illustrations were very well drawn and represented the Chinese culture well. They looked genuine and created a great amount of mental images while reading the story. The plot was very organized and flowed well through the beginning, middle, and end. Since the characters were animals it made the story kid friendly and easy to understand. The language is slightly more sophisticated, which is why it would be more appropriate for a 3rd or 4th grader. The book gives a good story about the Chinese culture regarding the new year which pushes readers to think about other cultures and traditions they have. The message of this book was to learn about the Chinese New Year and tell the tale about how the animals got assigned to each 'year' in the twelve years. ( )