Snatch Mother Goose from the wine and cheese culture of 17th century France and transplant her to the oil-filled and tumbleweed infested plains of west Texas and you might get the whimsical children’s fable Puss in Cowboy Boots (Simon and Schuster).
Twelve-year Hoboken resident Jan Huling wrote the story and her husband, Phil Huling, illustrated the retelling of the classic fable where a witty cat in red boots helps a naive cowboy find love and fortune while teaching children the power of friendship, loyalty, and hope.
“I had to reach deep inside and call on my inner Arlo Guthrie to write this book,” said Jan Huling Wednesday about the story that is set in Texas and written in a Southern drawl. “I’ve always liked fairy tales and thought that this was a fun story.”
Huling said the idea to write the adaptation came after reading the original Puss in Boots countless times to her son Seth, who attends Stevens Cooperative School. The story was always one of Seth’s favorites and it inspired him to trounce around the house in his red cowboy boots. Those experiences with her son as well as the animated antics of the family’s two cats, Spatzle and Farfel, inspired Huling to write a book.
The original story of Puss in Boots was an oral folk tale passed down through the generations. When it was first published, it appeared in French author Charles Perrault’s Tales from Mother Goose in 1697. In that volume, he also first penned the stories of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood. Later in the 18th Century, the folk tale of Puss in Boots found its way into the German Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Huling’s version opens in the wilds of modern day Texas where an old rodeo clown “kicks the bucket.” Clem the clown, who has three sons, doesn’t have much in the way of inheritance. One son gets his beaten pick-up truck and another gets his old rodeo suit.
The youngest son, Dan, only gets a mangy old cat named Puss, who doesn’t look like much on the outside, and cowboy Dan’s first intentions are to turn the feline into a bowl of “three-alarm” chili.
Puss tells Dan that if he gets a pair of boots and a burlap sack, he can make him “gladder than a mosquito at a blood bank.”
Dan returns with the sack and a fine pair of red snake skin cowboy boots, and the two embark on a series of adventures where they run into a Lone Star state oil tycoon, turkeys, possums, a big mean ogre, and an artist from New York City on their search for fame and fortune.
Sun-drenched landscapes
Illustrator Phil Huling uses sun-drenched landscapes and an array southwestern yellows, oranges, and burnt-hued greens to make up the visual texture of the book. The illustrations are both successful in helping to tell the story as well as establishing the mood of the American southwest. This is the second book he has illustrated. The first was Moses in Egypt (Rabbit Ears).
The Hulings are both active in the Friends of the Hoboken Public Library. Jan currently serves on the organization’s board and runs its “Authors and Illustrators” series where local authors gather to discuss their works.
For information about purchasing Puss in Cowboy Boots, go to www.SimonSaysKids.com or www.pussincowboyboots.com.