Cat up a Tree - Hardcover

Anne Isaacs is the author of the highly-acclaimed Swamp Angel, a Caldecott Honor book illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, and Treehouse Tales, which the Horn Book called "a trio of winners" in a starred review. She lives in Santa Cruz, California with her family.

Stephen Mackey has been creating a successful line of stationery goods since 1990 and has exhibited his paintings throughout England. He lives in a suburb of Manchester, England, with his family. Cat Up a Tree is his first book.

The Secret Life of a Cat

Embers in the palm of night
Light my way through tangled grasses;
I await the rising moment,
Wary of each wind that passes.

Keeping watch amid the shadows
Silent by the water hole;
Every inward flare of tumult
Frozen in a fierce control.

Life-breath whispers all around me,
Trembles every stem and vine;
Winged with fear, gazelles will scatter:
Africa is mine.

The Tree's Complaint

A plague upon the race of cats
Who scratch along my noble height,
Those caterwauling, mouse-breath brats,
(Till they look down, and scream in fright!)

Why all this fuss about a cat?
Does he weave boughs to bind together
Earth and sky? Or stand outdoors
To shelter you in stormy weather?

Would he let lightning strike him down
To keep you safe? Let axes hack
His limbs to bits, to warm your hearth?
Or let you rest upon his back?

Is it a cat who hangs the leaves
In scarlet banners from the sky,
Charms blossoms out of sticks,
Then floats them down as you walk by?

When in memory did a cat
Produce an apple, plum, or peach,
Perfume the air, or offer you
The only shade upon a beach?

No laurels grown upon these limbs
Will crown a cat's celebrity!
I long to see the day return
When poets sing in praise of me.