Puss in Boots: A Musical (Libretto)

 

Shirley J.              Juvenile Fiction           Sibling rivalry meets fatherly and feline savoir faire                       Puss in Boots: A Musical (Libretto) by Neil Fishman and Harvey Edelman    81 pages

Before he died, a man bestows his worldly goods upon his 3 sons.  To the eldest he gives his farm and his horse.  To his middle son, he gives all the barnyard creatures and to his youngest son, he gives a farthing and his cat.  Upon his death the two older sons kick the youngest son out to fend as best he could for himself.   You can't go to far on a farthing, but, it turns out, his father's cat is able to speak and speak in a French accent.  (Not the Steven Spielberg, Antonio Banderas version.)  Turns out the father thought the two oldest to be kind of stupid, so he left them enough to continue supporting them for the rest of their lives, but the youngest he knew to be creative, inventive and brilliant and he knew this son with the guidance of a wonderful counsellor like the talking cat, would be able to turn a farthing into a fortune in no time.  The story is a good one with a princess and her pushy parents, a town willing to foster a falsehood to keep from suffering the King's wrath, and an ending that is as real as life itself.   A fun telling of this age old story with new twists, good for any age.  Baby Boomers will recognize it as similar to the fractured fables told on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.    I recommend this to all ages.