The Miss Meow Pageant

Lois Provost Turchetti is a professional children’s storyteller (in
English and Caribbean Creole), who also conducts educational workshops
in Toronto.

Early in this trickster story, Henrietta Jones, teacher extraordinaire,
becomes surrogate mother to a stray fat tomcat with bizarre markings and
color. Recognizing him as a “liberated cat [who] doesn’t believe in
all that beauty contest nonsense,” she names him “Sparrow.”

One day, Henrietta’s friend Len convinces her to enter Sparrow in the
Miss Meow Pageant because the first prize is a trip to Paris for the
winning cat and its owners. As they try to make Sparrow into something
he is not (in teaching him how to walk, he responds only to the music of
The Mighty Sparrow, a Caribbean Calypso singer famous for his encoded
propriety-defying lyrics), Sparrow has the trickster’s last laugh. A
master of transformation, the fat tom with an attitude turns out to be a
“queen,” becomes a mother, and takes first prize simply by being
true to herself.

This humorous, colorfully illustrated book employs the same contrary
patterns that run through Caribbean, Native, and Islamic tales—the
puzzle form whose unwritten threads are central to the narrative. Good
for stimulating critical reading, thinking, and discussion, Sparrow’s
tale focuses on breaking stereotypes. Highly recommended.