He’s growing is a fable about a clever, orange tomcat. A fable is a short story that typically has animals as the characters, conveying a moral. This book follows this orange tomcat who ends up hungry and decides it may be in his best interest to find a family who will take him in and feed him as it has gotten harder and harder for him to forage for food out on his own. Every few chapters, the cat grows larger – starting as a house cat, then a Main Coon, a lynx, a leopard, a cougar and finally he is nearly as big as a lion! The family that takes him in is made up of a mother and father and their 2 children, a daughter and a son. We never learn the families names but each of the family members feels differently about the cat moving into their home, especially since they just lost the family dog not too long ago. They seem to come across as more of “dog people” than “cat people”, but have offered up their home to this cat. The bigger he gets, the more annoyed the mother seems to get with him. Then the cat figures out how to talk to the family and the mother ends up even more annoyed while the rest of the family are all enamored with him.
I had an idea of this book from the start based on the cover, but it took quite some time for me to realize if I was right or not in my assumptions. I don’t want to give too much away – but if you think the cover is giving something away, you’ll want to stick with the book for a while. As I am not a “cat person” it was hard to really get into a book where the main character was a cat – and a not so nice cat, at that. It took a while for this book to really get rolling for me, and once it did, it was nearly over. I could have done with less back story I guess, and more action!
If you’re a cat person though, you’ll probably enjoy the inner workings of this cat and his thought process. You’ll enjoy it more if you’re not a fan of who you think you might see on the cover.
I received a free e-copy of this book from Reedsy Discovery.
About the Book
A modern fable, “He’s Growing” tells the story of a clever, orange tomcat who ingratiates his way into an innocent family, getting bigger and bigger. Once he learns how to talk, there’s no telling where he’ll stop.