European
Picture 
Book
Collection

Country: Portugal
Language: Portuguese
Title: O gato e o escuro (the cat and the dark)
Author: Mia Couto
Illustrator: Danuta Wojciechowska
Publisher: Caminho
ISBN: 972-21-1415-8
Chosen by : Margarida Morgado, Senior Lecturer, Escolar Superior de Eduçao de Castelo Branco, Portugal

Rationale for Choice:
This is a narrative about crossing borders, boundaries and exploring the limits and is suitable for exploring issues of intercultural education such as migration, feelings of difference and racism. It is also about fear of the dark and the experience of growing up into someone different from the former self. The fear of the dark theme is articulated with that of racist issues: the little cat becomes black and meets the dark. He learns about the dark's ways of feeling: his sense of nothingness, of absence and of frightening others. Being black and the fear of the dark are deconstructed as cultural constructions: it is people who fill the dark with fears and nothingness. The mother cat figure talks the dark into imagining himself differently as her son and a cat. The black cat – that used to be the dark - is happy when he can recognise himself at the far end of the other cats' eyes. He realises that it is through looking at one another in different ways that we exist.   Spotcat, the little kitten, finds it difficult to accept the new brother but learns acceptance and integration through staring into her mother's eyes. To learn to see those that look different in new ways becomes an important strategy of acceptance and integration.   

Re-telling
The narrator she-cat invites readers to hear the story about the little kitten with spots that became black out of fright. The little cat gradually changes his appearance when he crosses the border between day and night. He realizes then that this experience of border crossing has changed him forever. But he fears his new appearance and experience and learns how it feels being the dark. The dark hides and worries about not being liked, about not existing because of its blackness and about frightening children. But the she-cat mother-like figure warms to him and shows him that he can be loved as much as any other cat despite being black and shapeless in the eyes of others. In fact, she shows him that he is still her son as much as any other cat of different appearance, lying reflected at the far end of her eyes. Her eyes are black in the darkness and yellow in the light. But in their yellowness there's always that black gap through which the sameness of others can be imagined.

Translation:
page 1/2. Look, children, at the little black kitten sitting at the top of this story. Well, he hasn't always been that colour, you know? His mother says that he was once yellow, with specks and spots. He used to be called   Pintalgato (Spottycat).

It is said he became like this, totally black, because of a fright. I will tell you how this transferrance from clear to dark happened. The story, I promise you, isn't clear at all.

Page 3/4. It happened like this: The little kitten liked to walk over that line where day borders night. He pretended that the sun set was a wall. He pretended that his furry paws were stepping into the sunset. His mother worried and pleaded: ‘Never cross the light to the other side'

Page 5/6. That was her big worry, that her child would cross over the setting   sun. Spottycat would say ‘ yes' and nod in agreement. He pretended to obey his mother but he got to the sunset and peaked across to the other side. He flirted with the forbidden and his eyes glowed.

Page 7/8. Once upon a time, he breathed courage in and crossed with one leg to the other side, where night crawls itself to sleep.

He gradually felt more confident and, each time, he'd go further to the other side. Till half of him had completely crossed the border beyond the limit.

Page 9/10. When he returned home from his disobedience, he glimpsed at his fore paws and got a fright. They were black, blacker than peat. He hid in a corner, as curled as a pangolin* . He did not want to be caught black-handed in the darkness act.

Page 11/12. Even so, the next day, he continued his game. And he dared to put his whole body across to the other side of clarity. As he advanced, his heart raced. He feared punishment. He closed his eyes and advanced thus, eyebrows set, into the night. He walked and walked, crossing the immense night.

It was only when he flowed into the other time margin that he dared unveil his eyes.He looked at his body and saw that he couldn't see himself. What had happened? Had be truned blind? Why was the world being wrapped up in a black cloak?

Page 13/14. He cried. He cried. And cried.

He thought he would never return to his former self. That's when he heard a voice that said. ‘Don't you cry, little kitten.' ‘Who is this?' ‘ It's me, the dark. It is I who should cry because I look at everything and see nothing.' Yes, the dark, poor guy. What a life, always segregated from light!

Was it not a pity? For example, he was sad because he couldn't see the kitten's beautiful eyes. He couldn't even spot his own eyes, black eyes in a black body. Nothing, not even the tense back arch. There was nothing left of his former catness.

And the dark, sadly, burst out into tears.

Page 15/16. Midway through that parade of complaints and sadness, a big she-cat approached. It was the disobedient kitten's mother. Spotcat moved away for fear his mother would punish him. But mother was more concerned to solace the dark. And she told him: ‘May your eyes turn green, so green that they become yellow.' And the dark's eyes turned yellow. And two little yellow tears flowed down unyielding against the black background. The dark cried still: ‘I'm ugly. Nobody likes me.' ‘ Nonsense, you're beautiful, as much as everybody else.' ‘Then why am I not in the rainbow?' ‘You're in my rainbow.' ‘ But children fear me. Everybody is afraid of the dark'. ‘Children don't know that the dark is only inside them.' ‘ I don't understand, Mrs Cat'. ‘There's dark inside each one of us. And that dark is only inhabited by those we invent there. Do you get it now?' ‘It's not clear, Mrs Cat.' ‘It's not you who scares people. It's people who fill the dark with their fears.'

Page 17/18. Mother Cat smiled bounties, purred tendernesses, rubbed caresses all over the dark's body. And so many caresses did she envelop him in that the dark fell asleep. When he woke up he noticed that his back shone all the colours of the light. Half of his body glowed as a rainbow. Well? The wonder was still with him when he heard the big cat's voice: ‘'Do you want to be my son?'

Page 19/20. The dark shrunk feeling dizzy. Son? But he was not even something, not even a pre-thing. ‘How can I become your son if I am not even a cat?' ‘And who said you weren't?' And the dark shook his body and felt his tail waving in space. He stretched his leg and saw his nails sparkle, thrown out suddenly as sharp blades. Spotcat shivered when he noticed his newly acquired brother. ‘ Mother, am I a brother to that thing there?' ‘Do you doubt Spotcat? I'll prove to you that I am a mother to both.' Look closely into my eyes, and you'll see.'

Page 21/22.Spotcat stared into the depths of his mother's eyes as if hanging over a dark well. Suddenly he almost stumbled down when some sort of lightning crossed the night.

Spotcat woke up sleepy still and realized that it had been a dream after all. He called his mother. She approached and he remarked a strangeness in her eyes he had never noticed before. When she looked at the dark, his mother's eyes became black. They seemed to fill with the dark. It is as if they became pregnant with darkness, the pupils overflowing.

Page 23/24. But in the light her eyes became yellow, clear and full of light, except for a very narrow black gap. Spotcat peeked into that dark gap as if glimpsing the abyss. And what did he see beyond that gap? Can you guess? He saw a black cat curled on the other side of the world.

NB This is a working translation for educational purpose only.

[*The pangolin is a long-tailed, sticky-tongued tropical Old World (Asia and Africa) mammal. Most species feed at night, sleep during the day, and roll into an impenetrable ball when threatened. The pangolin's body is covered with large, flat, horny scales; it somewhat resembles the New World armadillo in terms of its feeding habits and its employment of a curled up, hedgehog-like defensive posture. It has a long sticky tongue which it uses to gather termites and ants. The pangolin is also called scaly anteater, any of the armoured placental mammals of the order Pholidota. Pangolin, from the Malayan meaning "rolling over," refers to this animal's habit of curling into a ball when threatened. About eight species of pangolins, usually considered to be of the genus Manis, family Manidae, are found in tropical Asia.
Description :   Pangolins have a long tail, short powerful limbs, and a conical head. They are native to the regions of Southeast Asia and are found in parts of Africa. This reptile-like animal with large overlapping scales has often been spotted in the Kafue National Park, in dry woodland or scrub terrain. Some pangolins live in trees but most are ground dwellers. Ground dwelling pangolins have strong legs capable of digging into termite mounds for food. The arboreal pangolins have prehensile tails which they use both for balance and as a hook to hang from. Arboreal pangolins roll up in a ball in a tree hollow at night to sleep.  Pangolins vary in size. The Long-Tailed Pangolin is smallest, at about 3 feet (1 meter) long and weighing 3-4 pounds (2 kg). The Giant Pangolin is almost 6 feet (2 meters) long and weighs 70 pounds (32 kg). The Giant Pangolin's tongue is about 2 feet (61 cm) long, and internally is anchored to the pangolin's hip bones. (See: http://www.pangolin.com/PangolinPic.html ]

Activities for use in school:

1. Look at pages 1 & 2 with your class and discuss the fact that the kitten wasn't always black. Then browse through the pages with your pupils and get them totry to explain in their own words how the kitten became black.
2. Focus on the picture on pages 15 & 16. The kitten doesn't like being black. Ask the children what might be the reason for his tears.
3. Read this extract which suggests his reasons. Do any of your pupils feel, or have felt like, this little kitten:  

The dark cat was still crying.

‘I'm ugly. Nobody likes me.'

‘Nonsense, you're beautiful. As much as the others.'‘Then why am I absent from the rainbow colours?'

‘You're in the rainbow.'‘The other children are afraid of me. Everybody is afraid of the dark.'

‘The children don't know that there is only darkness inside each one of us.'‘I don't get it, Miss Cat.'

‘Each one of us has his or her own darkness. And we bring who we want into that darkness. Do you understand now?'

‘It's not clear, Miss Cat.'

‘It's not you they're afraid of. We are the ones that fill our darkness with our fears.'

1. The kitten's story was just a dream. He had dreamt that he had lived through the situation of becoming different from his appearance. Get pupils to look at the picture again and write their own story from the kitten's dream sequence. And now a final riddle: Get pupils to look carefully at page 24 and ask them what theysee.

Answer: A black cat curled on the other side of the world(Um gato preto, enroscado do outro lado do mundo.)          OR         

The pupil of a cat's eye in the light: yellow, clear and bright with a tight black slit

(Ante a luz, porém, seus olhos todos se amarelavam, claros e luminosos, salvo uma estreitinha fenda preta.)

Reflection:

Does being different make everybody a bit special?

NB Further literature and language-based activities can be found in
Picture Books sans Frontières available from tb@trentham-books.co.uk
or www.amazon.co.uk