I can say many things about Henriettetas crazy adventures, but let me start out by telling you a little about the book The Cat That Covered The World By Christopher Wren. In this book it fallows Christopher Wren, his wife, two children, and there New York City cat Henrietteta on an adventure covering world events in Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, Ottawa, and Johannesburg. While the family tries to cope with the change in cultures and atmosphere Henrietteta tries to cope also. In Beijing Henrietteta tries to deal with her terrible first visit to the Veterinarian. In Cairo she was living like Cleopatra down by the Nile with all those rats, but in Alaska she has to fight her way through the snow like a sled dog. I thought this book was very enjoyable and Christopher Wren made all of Henriettas antics very funny. Wren also gave very descriptive accounts of the cities in which the stories take place. There were also a few things I did not like about this book. The author used very mature words, and I constantly found myself looking in the dictionary for definitions. Some paragraphs in the book were confusing and I would strongly recommend this reading to older teenagers to adults. I wish the author would have extended the adventures because they were very entertaining.

Christopher Wren, a foreign correspondent with the New York Times, was no great lover of cats when he lucked into a kitten that came to him with a bottle of scotch. Henrietta made faster friends with his wife Jaquelin, daughter Celia, and son Chris, and together they insisted she travel with them to Wren's postings in Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, Ottawa, and Johannesburg.

Naturally there are wonderful adventures with Andrei Sakharov, diplomats, and other journalists, as well as near-death experiences and disappearances. Wren lightly describes the lore of cats in the various countries they visited, a touch of feline physiology and psychology when useful, and the more practical concerns of how to feed a kitty and procure her litter in faraway, isolated lands. This charming book is enhanced by a handful of ink and watercolor illustrations in a Chinese style by Meilo So, and would make a perfect gift for any cat lover.

Unfortunately, this book is yet another victim of publisher slovenliness and neglect: I found a taxi "weaving through Rome's narrow seats" (72), "an smiling vendor" (95), "other more more obscure meanings" (143), and "...we spared the cat the seventeen-hour flight back to Beijing and by leaving her with the young schoolteacher...." (150). The text also seems confused about whether Henrietta got lost in Cairo "more than a month" (86) or "nearly a month" (88). One cannot but regard this as yet another sign of contempt on the part of the publishing world for readers, books, and the poor author, but one can do nothing about it but complain.

There are plenty of fine books of appreciation for a particular dog, but, given the nature of cats, there is understandably less literature in their praise. The best book I have read celebrating a particular cat is _The Cat Who Covered the World: The Adventures of Henrietta and Her Foreign Correspondent_ (Simon & Schuster) by Christopher S. Wren. Wren was a foreign correspondent for _The New York Times_, but when he wrote his first article about traveling the world with the family cat, he got more response than he did for any news articles. He acquired Henrietta as a gray ball of fluff because the person giving kittens away was giving a bottle of Scotch away with each one. Henrietta went with the Wren family to Egypt, China, Moscow, Canada, South Africa, and elsewhere. The book tells of the difficulties of finding her the right food, or kitty litter, or of getting her through customs; but it also shows how in a family which traveled everywhere together, Henrietta became a movable symbol of hearth and home.

A fine book for anyone who likes cats, _The Cat Who Covered the World_ is also a memorable portrait of a loving family in unusual environments, and of amusing and frustrating clashes of culture. Wren is a good story teller, and has a wealth of tales about his cat, whom he obviously loved, and her extraordinary life. Charming.