BOOKS: Molly

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

Molly
by Joseph S. Bonsall
Illustrated by
Erin Marie Mauterer
Ideals Children’s Books (1501 County
Hospital Road, Nashville, TN 37218),
1997. 32 pages, hardcover, $14.95

Country singer Joe Bonsall of the
Oak Ridge Boys ought to set Molly to music.
Dedicated “To my lovely wife Mary, who
taught me all about cats and their love,” it’s
a beautifully produced but quite conventional
story of how a kitten finds a home. There are
lots of similar children’s stories, but so far
nothing like it on country radio stations, to
tell cowboys and truckers that it’s okay to
love cats as well as dogs, diesel, and departed
women. Taken to the right audience in the
right medium, this sort of thing could even
start folks to rethinking rodeo and eating
meat––especially if Bonsall’s projected Molly
series were to include an item about the waif
kitten making friends with a steer.