I liked this story a lot because of the cat's cleverness and the rags-to-riches plot. At every turn, I thought, "How will the cat get them out of this one?" and she always found a way that surprised and amused me.
I also liked the part that luck played in this story. The cat was indeed clever, but she couldn't have done any of what she did without luck. For example, if the animals hadn't gone into the trap two at a time, she never would have had an excuse to meet the King. If she hadn't found the gold coin, she couldn't have used that trick to convince the King of the Earl's riches. If the ogre hadn't had a powder that made him shrink, the cat wouldn't have been able to claim the castle as the Earl's. So, luck is very important to Jack's success, as well as the cat's quick and creative thinking.
I was surprised that Jack didn't care about the cat when she almost died. I suppose it can be easy to forget about "lesser" creatures when you've been rich and successful for a while, but it really disappointed me that Jack couldn't hang on to any gratitude for the cat who kept him alive and elevated him to royal status. This would be a good point to expand on, since the story only included a line or two about Jack's behavior at the end.
Boy with cat. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Bibliography: Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs. Link to the reading online.
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