https://shawjonathan.com/2021/08/25/ruby-reads-26-more-catwings-and-amazing-aust... ( )

Lovely! ( )

At first W worried the story only featured Jane: "I like the other cats!" Quite soon he was back in the Catwings world and enjoyed it as much as the others.

Le Guin works in an implicit subtext criticising misogyny and male chauvinism, not particularly subtle for older readers but for W the message seemed to register as focusing on Jane, and not females generally. ( )

Although young Jane, the most recent addition to the Catwings, loves life at Overhill Farm, she becomes convinced that she needs to use her wings to see the world. She doesn't listen to her siblings' warnings of what will surely happen once human beans beings discover that there are cats with wings. Jane journeys back to the city of her birth, where she finds a friendly human bean being who takes good care of her, but who makes sure that she can't use her wings to travel away from him. Will Jane ever see her family again? This final Catwings book brings the series to a happy conclusion. I'm glad to have discovered this series, and it will go on my list of children's books to give as shower gifts, Christmas gifts, or a child's birthday gift. ( )

And back to sweet and a bit pointless. Or maybe a little too pointed. The problem here is that despite all the publicity, Jane is apparently completely forgotten and never spotted again... highly unlikely. Jane gets bored with the farm and decides to fly back to the city (despite her early trauma there - I guess she really is cured). She cheerfully picks a human for a friend (and what was wrong with her friends at home?), who is delighted to see her and to put her on TV, etc. He treats her well, but won't let her loose at all - which is not what she was looking for when she left home. So she sneaks off...and finds and moves in with her mother, who has a human of the good sort. And the story ends with Jane flying freely about the city, but no problem (somehow) with people spotting her. It's OK, but I like Wonderful Alexander better. ( )