A farmer sends his three sons out into the world on a series of quests in this Latvian folktale, determined to leave his property to the one who is most successful. The two oldest boys are eager, but foolish Ivan is uninterested, and must be prompted by his father to make an attempt. Each time he sets out, Ivan is led to an enchanted Castle of Cats, where his modest gifts - a small leather ball, some mint (AKA catnip), and a carved wooden ring - gain him such beautiful gifts in return, that he is chosen as heir. Ivan however, has no interest in the farm, and returns to the Castle of Cats with his bride - the Cat Queen...

The Castle of the Cats is the fourth picture-book I have read, following upon The Magic Dreidels: A Hanukkah Story, The Birds' Gift: A Ukrainian Easter Story and The Spider's Gift: A Ukrainian Christmas Story, in which author Eric A. Kimmel and illustrator Katya Krenina collaborated. They make an excellent team, and I always enjoy the work they do together. This was no exception, and I found the story quite engaging. It draws upon familiar themes - the three sons, the youngest of whom (almost always an 'Ivan') is a fool; the three quests, in which the questers must bring back something lovely; the enchanted bride - but also went in a direction I did not expect, with Ivan following his feline bride, and eventually becoming a cat himself. I suppose a life of indolence suits his personality! The artwork here is interesting, and quite lovely, done in a style - it looks to be part collage, part painting - that feels a little different from that seen in some of Krenina's other titles.

The only note of discontent, for me, was Kimmel's brief note, in which he mentions that the story here was based upon the Latvian tale of The Palace of the Cats, but that both he and Krenina preferred to transfer the narrative to Ukraine, because they had personal ties to that country, and this made them more comfortable. Given the dearth of Latvian stories that are widely available to English-speaking children, this disappointed me, and it felt somewhat odd. After all, Kimmel has retold stories from all over the world, and he can't have a personal connection to every country from which those stories hail. Krenina has fewer titles to her credit, but I assume they're not all Ukraine-based. Very odd. Leaving that aside, this was an entertaining and lovely picture-book, one I would recommend to all young folk and fairy-tale lovers. ( )

This book is a retelling of the original "The Palace of Cats", a Latvian folktale. In this folktale a father must decide which of his three sons will inherit his farm. One son, Ivan, is simple and does not desire the farm. His father insists that he at least tries to complete the tasks set before him. As Ivan completes the tasks he befriends a cat queen from a mystical kingdom. The queen agrees to marry Ivan and although Ivan rightfully wins the farm he chooses to accompany the queen back to her kingdom where he happily resides. This story is a folktale because it is originally an oral story that was passed down through the generations. ( )

This is a very interesting retelling of a classic folktale by Portland's Eric Kimmel. In the tale, there are three sons who must compete over who will win the family farm. They must get the best cloth, dress, and bride to win. The underdog youngest son finds a magic castle of cat-people, who help him win. He marries the head cat-woman when she turns human, and they live happily ever after in her cat castle, while the brother allows his older brothers to keep the farm. ( )