Esther Averill’s stories about Jenny Linsky and The Cat Club was an early obsession of mine!
The introduction to the series started innocently enough… Like most kids growing up in the 70's,one of the first books I read was THE FIRE CAT, Esther Averill’s contribution to the “I-Can-Read-Book” series. This story featured one of the major supporting members of Jenny’s cat Club environment: Pickles the Cat, and you can even see Jenny with her brothers sitting in a fire truck with Pickles at the Fire Station!
Then I also read JENNY’S BIRTHDAY BOOK, another easy to read story, this time finally featuring Jenny Linsky herself!! This was more like a picture book than a storybook proper, but I loved it nonetheless! My interest in the Jenny series was properly rooted! I moved on to the books that were a bit wordier, books like JENNY GOES TO SEA and JENNY’S MOONLIGHT ADVENTURE! I particularly liked the latter, because it was a "Halloween" story, and Esther Averill's style of illustrations perfectly suited the holiday.
I remember they had just released THE CAT CLUB, JENNY’S FIRST PARTY, WHEN JENNY LOST HER SCARF, JENNY’S ADOPTED BROTHERS and HOW THE BROTHERS JOINED THE CAT CLUB in a collection called JENNY AND THE CAT CLUB, and this was like MY FAVORITE BOOK! I was fascinated to read about how Jenny joined the Cat Club and how she aquired her two brothers Edward and Checkers! I was able to buy this wonderful book at out school book fair, and it was a HAPPY DAY for me! I'd take this book to school with me EVERY DAY to re-read during recess, I loved it so much.!
I also discovered THE HOTEL CAT, which was a longer, in-depth story about the Cat Club! Having read only the shorter stories of Esther Averill, i was thrilled to read a real chapter book featuring the Cat Club! In this story various members of the Cat Club have to stay at a nearby hotel because of a burst furnace, where they meet a new cat who acts as bellhop to the feline residents of the hotel. I remember constantly borrowing the book from my elementary school library,desperately wishing I could KEEP the book! Actually, that went for ALL the Jenny books I could only borrow, and I was SO grateful that I owned a paperback copy of JENNY AND THE CAT CLUB!
Well, as I got older, the desire never fully went away, and so with the advent of EBAY, I began the long, hard, arduous task of collecting all things Jenny Linsky, and it was a challenge indeed. Besides being out of print, most of these books were very, very old…some editions like JENNY’S MOONLIGHT ADVENTURE and The SCHOOL FOR CATS came out in the 1940’s! You can bet I spent a pretty penny on some of the titles here. But it was all worth it, and it’s not all nostalgia either…the stories are STILL so good to read, and there were several of them that I'd never even got a chance to read in my childhood!
One of them was the story "The School For Cats". This was the first appearance of Pickles the Cat who would later be re-invented for the 1960 Fire Cat Book. It was a shock to see his portrayal in this early stage of developement!
In this story he is a bully cat at the school Jenny attends, until she gets through to him and they become friends.
A running thread throughout the Jenny stories is this strong friendship the two have with each other, and it was nice to read the actual story where the two first met.
Another title I'd always seen listed in the Jenny books but never got my hands on as a child was CAPTAINS OF THE CITY STREETS. When I finally got it, I was blown away. CAPTAINS is an EXTREMELY well written book. A sort of prequel to The Jenny Linsky books, this story tells of the creation of the neighborhood Cat Club as seen through the eyes of the Club’s two tough street cats Sinbad and The Duke. You get to meet all the major characters for the very first time, and get to read about how each member joined. As most Jenny books circled around her and her brothers, It was fascinating to read a story that fleshed out the other characters as well as showing their interaction with each other! A VERY interesting read!
It’s a shame that the Esther Averill books aren’t better known among children nowadays. I AM happy to report that some of the titles were recently re-released, so at least kids out there have a chance to read them without shelling out $80 for a copy! Beautifully redesigned as a set, I think about eight of Jenny's titles are now available again! I hope this helps the Jenny books get back into school libraries for future generations of kids to enjoy!
In this day and age, we really need more stories like the Jenny Series!
Jenny Linsky Cat Club Titles
The Cat Club (1944)
The School For Cats (1947)
Jenny’s First Party (1948)
Jenny’s Moonlight Adventure (1949)
When Jenny Lost Her Scarf (1951)
Jenny’s Adopted Brothers (1952)
How The Brothers Joined The Cat Club (1953)
Jenny’s Birthday Book (1954)
Jenny Goes To Sea (1957)
Jenny’s Bedside Book (1959)
The Fire Cat (1960)
The Hotel Cat (1969)
Captains Of The City Streets (1972)
Jenny and The Cat Club (1973)
