GATO FEO

A scraggly feline finds an admirer in this bilingual book by author/illustrator Wimmer.

An unnamed but “scruffy and very ugly cat” wanders into a Spanish pueblo one morning. He approaches a farmer and his cow, hoping for some milk, but the cow runs away in horror. The farmer shouts at him to go away: “¡Fuera Gato Feo!” (“Out, Ugly Cat!”) Still hungry, the feline tries the local bakery after spotting magdalenas (small, lemony cakes, similar to muffins) in the window, but the baker chases him off as well. After a long night wandering the streets, the cat meets a little boy who thinks he’s beautiful, exclaiming, “¡Que bonito!” He paints the cat’s portrait, and “people in the pueblo now called him ‘Gato Bonito.’” The book ends with definitions and pronunciations of Spanish words as well as a brief biography of Pablo Picasso, including a picture that resembles the boy in the story, but it’s unclear if the tale draws on any nonfiction elements. Either way, this is a well-crafted picture book that ably demonstrates the lesson that beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. The art is a treat as well; when the title character is finally fully shown on the last page, it’s a hilarious reveal.

A very entertaining tale of a very ugly cat.