The Two Foolish Cats: by Yoshiko Uchida (a critique)

The Two Foolish Cats, based on a Japanese folktale, is a story about two silly cats who live in the forests of Japan. Field mice and birds are frightened by the cats because they love to hunt these small animals for food. One spring morning the two cats, Big Daizo and Little Suki, could not find the mice and were not quick enough to catch fish in the stream. After arguing, the two animals finally discovered two rice cakes nearby. However, there was a slight problem- the rice cakes were not of equal size. While the animals continued to argue and scuffle over who should get the bigger cake, the field mice and the birds cheered them on and called them greedy and stubborn, hoping they would eat each other. Finally, a badger came out from the forest and advised them to have the wise old monkey settle their dispute. Big Daizo and Little Suki agreed and ventured through the forest to locate him. When they finally found the old monkey sitting in a tree, they told him their dilemma. The wise old monkey said he knew how to solve their problem and went inside his house. He brought out a small scale and quickly found that the rice cakes were not of equal weight. So, the monkey began to take a bites of both rice cakes to make them equal, but instead had soon eaten both rice cakes. The old monkey informed the cats that he had stopped their arguing because the food was equally gone. The cats felt foolish and the blue jays relayed the story to the other animals in the forest. After the animals snickered at the two silly cats, Big Daizo and Little Suki went back into the forest and never squabbled again.
I enjoyed reading the humorous Japanese story. The story was simplistic, but entertaining. I was quickly drawn in the story because I wanted to find out what would become of the two foolish cats. I feel Uchida cleverly got her point across about the consequences of being greedy. I did, however, find it puzzling that the field mice were terrified of the cats, but yet was around them quite often throughout the book. I thought this aspect of the book was contradicting. This is the first book I have read by this author.
Yoshiko Uchida, a Japanese-American author, has written several books. These include The Best Bad Thing, The Birthday Visitor, The Bracelet, The Happiest Ending, The Invisible Thread, A Jar of Dreams, Journey Home, The Magic Purse, Picture Bride, Samurai of Gold Hill, Rooster Who Understood Japanese, The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales, Sea of Gold, The Wise Old Woman, and The Terrible Leak. Yoshiko Uchida died in 1992.

Resource:

http://www.biblio.com/author_biographies/2107284/Yoshiko_Uchida.html