A couple notes: The Cat Who Went to Heaven is short. I've read things that called themselves short stories that are longer than this. It was kind of a nice change.
Also, the first eight Newberys were written by men, and Hitty was the first by a woman. But then this and the following eight are also written by women. Weird patterns.
Like I said, this story was short - it took me well under an hour to read - but I thought it was very satisfying. It's essentially a frame story to tell the life of Buddha, about a poor painter, his housekeeper, and a cat. The painter gets a contract to paint Buddha and all the animals who came to pay their respects at his death. The cat was the one animal who didn't listen to Buddha's teaching, which disappoints the cat in the story. Also, there are poems interspersed throughout the book from the point of view of the housekeeper.
Short and simple. I don't really have a lot of comments about the book. If I believed the story at all, I might become a Buddhist; he's portrayed as incredibly wise and kind, in all of his lives. And I kind of want the cat in the story - she's written almost like another human character.
Waterless Mountain is next, another book exploring the religion of another culture.
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