The Story of a Seagull and the Cat that Taught her how to Fly

Mayday! Mayday! A seagull’s egg fell on my lap and now it seems that I need to teach it how to fly.

Name: História de una Gaviota y del Gato que le Enseño a Volar | The Story of a Seagull and the Cat that Taught her how to Fly

Writer: Luis Sepúlveda

Country: Chile

Year: 2010

Genre: Young Adult

Synopsis

This is the story of Zorbas, a big, black and fat cat. One day, a beautiful seagull caught by the human’s wickedness leaves, just before dying, in his care, an egg that she had just laid. Being an honorable cat, Zorbas will fulfill the three promises that he is forced to make. With the grace of a fable and the strength of a parable, Luís Sepúlveda gives us, in this already classic book, a message of hope of the highest literary and poetic value.

Review

The first time that I saw this book, I fell in love with it. I didn’t know what it was about but I still decided to buy it. It was the first experience I had with this author and I really enjoyed it.

The title is a good summary of what the narrative is about. Once upon a time there was a cat named Zorbas, that did nothing but have a cat’s life. One day, a seagull named Kengah, while feeding in the sea, is caught by an oil black tide. Dying, flies without destination and ends up on the balcony of the house where Zorbas is, giving her precious egg to him and making him promise to not eat it, to care for it and to teach it how to fly.

BEing an honorable cat, Zorbas decides to do what we promised and asks for his friend’s help: Coronello, a cat that believes in discipline and likes to speak italian; Secretário, the cat that is always taking the meows out of Coronello’s mouth; Sabetudo, the encyclopedias’ cat; and Barlavento, the sea cat. Together they start taking care of the little seagull and, despite not really knowing what they are doing, they try to do the best they know.

Sepúlveda’s characters are deliciously charming, as if they came out of a fable. Even though there are many and they all come into the story practically at the same time, it doesn’t cause confusion to the reader. The most interesting is to see his vision of humans and of what they do to nature.

The writing of Sepúlveda is direct and poetic. Although the narrative presents itself as a fable, the language is not adequate to small children. However, I think older children will not have problems in understanding the story. That is probably why it is part of the National Reading Plan and is a book recommended for the 7th grade.

The narrative divides into two parts: the life before the cat Zorbas meets Kengah; and the growth of Ditosa, the egg.

Despite not being a habit of mine, I still have to mention the illustrations from the Porto Editora’s edition, for they are fabulous and sum up very well what is being told, taking us deeper into the story.

Regarding the ending, this is what is expected yet it does not take away any of the book’s magic.

Whisper of the Heart

Luis Sepúlveda had promised his children that one day he would write a story about the evil that humans do to the environment, harming themselves and nature. And that is how The Story of a Seagull and the Cat that Taught her how to Fly was born. Filled with symbolism inserted in the characters’ actions and dialogues, the narrative talks about the ocean pollution, mainly the trash that we, humans, throw into the oceans and the evil that oil does to the animals. The research work the author made is notorious when we read his description regarding the fate of Kengah, the seagull, after being immersed in oil.

Still, not everything is bad. Through criticism, the author approaches subjects that aren’t less important, such as goodness, trust in each other and ourselves, friendship, helping each other and loyalty. And being a book whose protagonists are a cat and a seagull, I couldn’t forget about multiculturalism.

In a specific moment in the story, Ditosa, the seagull that the cat Zorbas takes care of as if she was his own, she starts doubting herself for not being able to fly yet and thinking that perhaps the cats would prefer if she was one of them. Something that Zorbas ends up telling her that is a complete lie:

“We want you seagull. We feel that you like us too, that we are your friends, your family, and it is good that you know that with you we learned one thing that fills us with pride: we learned to appreciate, to respect and to like a different being. It’s very easy to accept and like those who are like us, but to do it with someone different is very difficult, and you helped us achieve it.”

With this moment, the author makes us reflect on how many of us have ever wanted to be someone we weren’t just because we thought that it was what others would prefer us to be. Is a lot better when we are all different, for that way we learn from each other. It’s an amazing book that deserves to be picked for the topic “A book that you read in school” for the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge.

And, lastly, after giving us so many life lessons, Luis Sepúlveda leaves us another one at the end of the story. The lesson that if we want something, we have to make it happen.

“ Yes, at the edge of the emptiness understood what was more important. - meowed Zorbas. (....) - That one only flies when he dares to do it. - meowed Zorbas.”

Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (10)