The Healing of Texas Jake

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Alan Daniel (Illustrator)

Overview

Texas Jake is on the mend...
and the fur is really flying.
Texas Jake, the big yellow tomcat, was badly injured saving his friends from the huge mastiff Bertram the Bad. Now the other cats in the Club of Mysteries are looking for ways to speed Texas Jake's recovery — perhaps earn the right to take his place as leader of the club.
Marco and Polo have taken on the riskiest mission of all — gathering some comfrey leaves to heal Texas Jake's wounds. The problem is, comfrey grows only at the city dump, and that's the turf of the dreaded Steak Knife and his gang. Steak Knife is rumored to have a collection of tails of his victims — and not just mouse and bird tails either!
Soon the brothers are up to their whiskers in danger. Will Marco and Polo return with the goods — and with their tails?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689874062
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/01/2005
Series:	The Cat Pack , #2
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	332,815
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.62(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	880L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has written more than 135 books, including the Newbery Award–winning Shiloh and its sequels, the Alice series, Roxie and the Hooligans, and Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard’s Roost. She lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To hear from Phyllis and find out more about Alice, visit AliceMcKinley.com.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-6In this sequel to The Grand Escape (Atheneum, 1993), house cats Marco and Polo temporarily leave their snug home to join up with the members of the Club of Mysteries. The feline club is headed by the ultra-tough (though badly wounded) Texas Jake, who commands each member to prove his worthiness to be his successor by performing a difficult task. Texas Jake's forceful personality has all the cats leaping to obey him, even the increasingly rebellious Marco. There isn't much plot here; most of the story hinges on the interplay between Texas Jake and the other cats, with Marco and Polo's perilous excursions in search of comfrey for his wounds adding some adventure. It's hard to understand why the two cats devote so much time to a club that gives so little in return; fans of The Grand Escape will have a little more insight into this matter and will enjoy following the lives of the cat brothers. The rather abrupt and anticlimactic ending will leave readers hanging, but will also give ample hope of a third installment to the story. Black-and-white sketches capture some of the more exciting scenes.Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal