"'Let's have a wee chat,' said the pup to the cat, 'for I truly must know how it is that one gets whacked.'"
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How to Get Whacked by a Cat by Lynda Sellers Trafford Publishing
book review by Maggie Harding
Thus starts the delightfully written and illustrated book by Lynda Sellers. How to Get Whacked by a Cat is not only a lovingly written children's story, it is also an allegory that illustrates the trials that life often gives the unsuspecting. The cat, a male in this case, is the whacker while the dog is the whackee. And all the pup knows is that she gets whacked when she can't figure out why... at all.
How to Get Whacked will give parents and caregivers the opportunity to read the book to a child, using silly voices and Seuss-like rhymes. It also presents a life lesson that children cannot hear too often. As a matter of fact, adults often need to hear it as well. Basically, the lesson is: Life is not always fair.
The pup can be taking a snooze, minding his own business, when along comes the cat and gives him a whack. The dog represents us. The cat represents life. Life can come along and give us a whack when we least expect it, when we don't deserve it, or when we don't know why it happened. Yet, despite all the searching for answers that we do, it boils down to the fact that life is uneven in its blessings and circumstances. Our best defense is to learn how to deal with the whacks when they hit us. The author concludes that "...faith, courage, and humor have been shining examples of how God's grace will carry you through the whacks of life." If you let Him.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review