Jenny Goes to Sea - Esther Averill

Jenny Goes to Sea, written and illustrated by Esther Averill / ISBN 9781590171554 / 140-page hardback from The New York Review Children’s Collection

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In Jenny Goes to Sea, our heroine makes her passage on the good ship Sea Queen with her master, Captain Tinker, and her adopted brothers, tiger cat Edward, and black-and-white cat Checkers. Once on board, they meet the adventurous ship's cat, Jack Tar.

Leaving New York's harbor, the friends travel to Africa and Asia, and return through the Panama Canal. At each port they meet a colorful local cat who shows them around. Jenny and her pals have their fortunes told by an Abyssinian cat in Zanzibar; dance the sailor's hornpipe with Bobo the Burmese, another ship's cat who was left behind, in Singapore; and float with Siamese cat Dara in a sampan boat on a Bangkok river—a truly exotic adventure.

"Esther Averill’s collection of Jenny Linsky books deserves special mention.... Told in clear, simple language that will appeal to younger children, all of these stories are delightful and festooned with simple illustrations every few pages that enhance, but never dominate, the melodious text."—The San Francisco Chronicle

"We never can get enough of Jenny, one of our favorite literary cats. She has style, verve, and the gentlest way of having a good time. We welcome heartily the account of her trip around the world." --New York Herald Tribune