About 10 years ago I read a fantasy/sci-fi book about a youth who
meets cats that could merge or dissolve into walls. The youth
eventually learned to do so herself (or himself--don't remember the
gender). I am looking for the title and author of this book.

The book was probably targeted at young readers, and from what I
remember about the style of writing and the technology it refers to I
would estimate that it was written in the late '60s to early '80s.
Note that I am *not* referring to Heinlein's "Pixel", the cat who
could walk through walls--the cats that I'm writing about were the
focus of the book.

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Request for Question Clarification by citizendaf-ga on 04 Jun 2002 13:52 PDT

I believe the book you are looking for was written by Andre Norton and
Dorothy Madler. Norton and Madler wrote a series of books about some
"felinoids" from the planet Zimmorrah -- alien cats with special
powers. They had telepathic powers, but I'm not sure if they had the
ability to walk through walls. You can get a better description (and
download full text of the first two books in the series) at
http://www.riff-fox.com/whatkaat.htm.
The books are:
Star Ka'at (1976) 
Star Ka'at World (1978) 
Star Ka'at and the Plant People (1979) 
Star Ka'at and the Winged Warriors (1981) 

Is it possible you conflated the two? If not, I'll keep looking.

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Request for Question Clarification by pythagoras-ga on 05 Jun 2002 00:08 PDT

Dear Madam,
Dear Sir,

Is it possible that this is a review of your book?:

"Longish first novel about a magical world where cats change to people
and back again, from a veteran children's author. In 1957 San
Francisco, successful painter Braden West mourns the recent death of
his wife, Alice. He has an important show coming up but is too
depressed to work. Meanwhile, he's mysteriously drawn, as was his
wife, to a vivid sculpture of cats carved into the door of his
house--a sculpture that turns out to be the portal into the cat world,
through which he is drawn. But the bulk of the story is given over to
17-year-old Melissa, a farm girl and then a scullery maid, whose real
heritage as the ``Queen of faerie'' has been hidden from her through
black magic. So off she goes on a perilous, not very original quest.
As in fairy tale, there's a wicked queen, who at one point turns
Melissa into a tiny calico cat. West joins Melissa in their quest, and
they fall in love, a subplot with all the variety of a genre romance.
And, of course, West has found his Alice again, more or less. Murphy
is often lyrical, but she leans too heavily on the conventions laid
down by C.S. Lewis, Anne McCaffrey, and Andre Norton. The most
interesting writing here is in fact the cat lore, which Murphy seems
to know everything there is to know about and which she associates
with what might be called the archetypal female. The interweaving
between real and fantasy worlds is well done; the implied notion,
intriguing if arguable, is that women are like cats inside--cool,
independent, and a bit mystical."

"Deposed from her throne and forced through the magic portal between
her world and ours, Melissa adopts the form of a small calico cat and
faces a journey that will take her from Hell Pit to the Faerie Court.
"

Can you give me a sign if this is correct, please.

Kind Regards,

Pythagoras

I believe that I've found your book.
It's called "Grimbold's Other World" (1963) by Nicholas Stuart Gray.

The main characters are an orphaned farm boy and a magical cat named
Grimbold. The story is fantasy and involves secret worlds and many
talking animals, including other cats. I've looked at the book, and I
can confirm that one of the cats does indeed instruct the boy on how
to walk through walls. The premise is that there are "gaps" in walls
that cats can see but people can't.

On page 17 of the first U.S. edition (hardback), there are some
passages that describe the cat teaching the boy how to walk through
walls. Here are some brief excerpts:

"He [Grimbold the cat] led the way, by winding brick paths, through
the moonlit garden to the stone wall at the end...  'All cats know the
gaps. You may have noticed how they can disapppear before your eyes
when they choose. But I suppose it will take magic to get you
through!'

"He sniffed disparagingly and said something like: 'Barriers of earth
and sky, let this hulking human by!'"

"And the ground shivered...  A mist blew around him and cleared... The
stone wall looked transparent, as though made of glass."



Numerous copies of the book are listed at Alibris [
http://www.alibris.com ] and Abebooks [ http://www.abebooks.com ] .

Here is a 1963 hardback edition on Alibris:
http://www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?chunk=25&qwork=2714046&S=R&bid=8067598587&page=1&matches=12&qsort=r

Here is a 1978 paperback edition listed on Abebooks:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookDetails?bi=137598600

I hope this helps.

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Request for Answer Clarification by vasi-ga on 31 Oct 2002 20:34 PST

"Grimbold's Other World", from the descriptions I've found, seems to
be set in a very rural environment. I'm almost certain that the book I
have in mind was in an urban setting. :-(

I'm also positive that it wasn't Heinlein's book, I've read it--I'm
trying to check out the other suggestiongs. I know that in the book,
the cats and humans who could go through walls didn't simply walk or
pass through them, but would flow through them, often staying or
traveling inside the walls. So that's the distinguishing feature I'm
looking for.

Thanks for your help,
vasi

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 31 Oct 2002 20:41 PST

Nice to hear from you again, Vasi. It's been a while. 
Well, you're right. "Grimbold's Other World" is set in a rural
environment. I'll see if I can locate anything that more "urban." If I
find anything, I'll let you know.

This site http://wuzzle.org/cave/catbooks.html has a list of fiction
and childrens books about cats.

You can't always judge a book by its title, but could it be "Le
Passe-muraille" by Marcel Aymé?  It was translated to English as "The
Walker-through-Walls."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0828836205/

Perhaps this is your book:

Robert A. Heinlein: The cat who walks through walls; a comedy of
manners. Putnam, 1985. 382p.

(source:  _Fiction Catalog_, 12th ed., HW Wilson Co., 1991. page 291)

I think you might want to take a look at Douglas Clegg's short story
"The Five", which can be found in _Twists of the Tale_, compiled by
Ellen Datlow.

Hi!

You may want to ask at Loganberry Books just in case no one here can
figure this mystery out. Loganberry is a great website and specializes
in posting children's book stumpers and solutions. They identified a
book I was trying to find for many years.

http://www.logan.com/loganberry/

Good luck with your search!


Filian

It is probably Gianni Rodari "Gelsomino in the Land of Liars".

Sincerely
Serge A. Terekhoff

See also http://www.siliconhenge.com/whatsthatbook/, which is free.