Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat

Published 1998 · 32 pages · 8,800 words · Children's Literature, Biography

How hard is Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat to read?

Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat scores 12 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 14 out of 100
A picture book for ages 6 to 9 uses plain, everyday words for a cat's-eye view of Montgomery's life. It sits near the simple end, close to the young-reader vocabulary of Judy Blume's Margaret.
Sentence structure: 15 out of 100
At roughly 8,800 words across 32 illustrated pages, sentences are short and meant for reading aloud. The syntax is simpler than Anne Frank's diary.
Abstraction: 20 out of 100
The story follows concrete events: a cat on a lap, a first draft, a move to Ontario. It stays as concrete as Asterix.
Information density: 15 out of 100
A 32-page book spreads a few biographical facts over many illustrated spreads. The pace is light and unhurried.
Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
Daffy the cat narrates the writing of Anne of Green Gables directly. Young readers need no inference beyond the animal-narrator conceit.
Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
The book works as a literal account of a writer and her pet. It carries little symbolic layering.
Ironic distance: 80 out of 100
The tone is warm and sincere, in the same register as Anne Frank's direct voice. Nothing in it works against its surface.
Resolution withholding: 80 out of 100
A biographical picture book for children follows Montgomery from first draft to marriage and closes cleanly. It leaves no open questions.
Structural complexity: 100 out of 100
The book moves in a linear sequence from the first draft of Anne of Green Gables to the move to Ontario. Its one formal device is Daffy's narration.

How Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat is regarded

Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat holds a literary regard score of 14 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.