It's Like This, Cat

Thirteen-year-old Dave Mitchell feels like no one in his family understands him. His father is perpetually disappointed, his mother's asthma flares every time they argue, and Dave is left storming out of their small New York apartment into the concrete canyons of the city. Then he meets Cat: a massive, self-possessed tomcat who wants nothing to do with him. But Dave keeps showing up, and eventually the cat tolerates him enough to become something like a friend. With Cat as his excuse to wander, Dave meets Tom, a young dropout trying to survive on his own in the city, and Mary, the first girl who doesn't make him feel like a freak. The cat leads him through adventures that crack open his small world. What makes this Newbery Medal winner endure is its quiet revelation: Dave doesn't change his father, but he learns to see him differently. Not as an adversary, but as a person wrestling with his own fears. The cat remains gloriously indifferent throughout. But the boy learns that even prickly creatures - and people - can teach you how to belong.