By: Stephen Cosgrove
Illustrated by: Robin James
While I was sorting through the small mountain of books in my mother's attic I happened upon one of my favorite children's books, Catundra. In the late 70's, a fellow named Stephen Cosgrove was shopping for a book for his three year old daughter. What he wanted was a nice story, with pictures, with a small moral attached, and a small price tag. He didn't find any, so he wrote his own. Thus was born the Serendipity Books
I had several of these books, but my favorite was always Catundra. One, it had a cat, my favorite critter. Two, the cat was a big fat orange cat, my favorite kind of cat. Three, it had a good story. The good parts version: Catundra is fat, she lives alone in the woods, the forest critters laugh at her because she is so fat, so she is miserable. One day she is so hungry, she catches a mole to eat. The mole convinces her that she should not eat him but let him become her personal trainer. With hard work and coaching from the mole, Catundra loses the weight. She and the mole live happily ever after. The End.
What's now amazing to me, at age 30, is this book comes right out and says "Poor Catundra would feel so bad after their name calling that she felt she just had to do something to forget what they had said and so she would eat more and more. Every time she ate some more she got just a little fatter, which made her feel worse and so she ate some more." Catundra is the source of her own misery. She is comfort eating. This is still something people can't wrap their heads around, and this book was written in 1978?! Maybe if more people read Catundra, we wouldn't have this obesity epidemic in America.
I took a look around the web to see what Stephen has been up to. Turns out he's re-edited all the books to correct errors and now they all take place on the mythical island of Serendipity. He's also created this amazing website called bookpop.com. It has interactive stories, printable coloring books, and audio books read by Steve himself. I think it's a brilliant way to get kids reading- Stephen Cosgrove Rocks!
2 comments:
This was my absolute, hands down FAVORITE book as a child! I had a collection of the serendipity books and I read them over and over and over....
I bought the 1978 edition at a jumble sale recently - it is in perfect condition. The cover illustration however is not the same as yours - my Catundra is curled-up asleep under a tree and snuggling next to her paw, also asleep, is the mole. The trouble is that thipos mole looks exactly like a mouse [grey, long tail] to me and not a European mole {viz: Wind in the Willows] - can someone explain?
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