The Cat Ate My Gymsuit (1974) is a young adult novel written by Paula Danziger.
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Paula Danziger (August 18, 1944 – July 8, 2004) was an American children's author. She wrote more than 30 books, including her 1974 debut The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, for children's and young adult audiences. At the time of her death, all her books were still in print; they had been published in 53 countries and in 14 languages.
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Paula Danziger's works were nominated for and won many American state children's book awards, including the Massachusetts Children's Book Award for The Cat Ate My Gymsuit in 1979 and the California Young Reader Medal for There's a Bat in Bunk Five in 1984. Four of her works were named IRA-CBC Children's Choices: The Pistachio Prescription in 1979, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit and Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice? in 1980, and There's a Bat in Bunk Five in 1981. The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators awards the Amber Brown Grant, which provides an all-expense-paid, full-day visit by a well-respected children's author or illustrator, a stipend to assist in creating the event, and $250 worth of books by the visiting author, to one or two schools annually in her honor.
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Following the success of The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, Danziger left teaching to write full-time in 1978. She maintained homes in New York City and in Bearsville, New York. For several years, she had a flat in London, where she was known for presenting a regular item about children's literature on the BBC's Saturday morning show Live & Kicking in the 1980s and 1990s.
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The most recent edition of the book has an afterword by Danziger explaining why she initially wrote the book and why it is still relevant today. The title of the book comes from one of the many excuses Marcy offers to her gym teacher, named Ms. Schmidt, but she called her just Schmidt, such as "the cat ate my gymsuit" to get out of physical education classes.
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"Children to vote on favorite books". The Boston Globe. Nov 10, 1977. Page A14. For six years then, to 1983, there were a pair of MCBA determined by votes of children in grades 4–6 and in grades 7–9 (generally, ages 9–12 and 12–15). The grades 7–9 winner in 1979, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danziger, had been the runner-up in 1977, voted by grades 4–6 only.
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After being injured in an automobile accident, she had trouble writing, as she was only able to write backwards. She was able to regain the ability to write normally, but she was able to write backwards for the rest of her life. This sequence of events prompted her to do what she really want to do in life; she began writing.The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, "A Note From Paula" (foreword), Puffin Books, 2014. .
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Danziger's debut novel was The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, whose characters were largely based on her experiences from childhood. She continued writing books for teens through the 1980s, expanding to books for younger readers with the Amber Brown series, whose protagonist is based on Danziger's niece Carrie. She frequently gave lectures and speeches, wearing elaborate costumes and calling herself a children's Dame Edna Everage. She is quoted as saying that her alternative career choice would have been as a stand-up comedian.
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Ninth-grader Marcy Lewis is a smart and sensitive girl who nevertheless lacks confidence. Being overweight, she is embarrassed to draw attention to herself, and she is failing gym class due to her reluctance to change clothes in front of the other girls (resulting in numerous creative excuses for why she doesn't have her gym clothes, such as the titular "the cat ate my gymsuit"). Her verbally abusive father Martin belittles and criticizes the entire family, while her nervous mother Lily encourages her daughter to ignore his behavior and try not to set him off, leading to Marcy's inability to talk about how she really feels. When her English teacher leaves his job, Marcy's English class receives a new teacher, Ms. Finney.
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In this sequel to The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, Marcy Lewis finds herself as a counselor in training at the summer camp near Woodstock, New York run by her former English teacher, Ms. Finney, whom Marcy has missed after Ms. Finney had been fired from her job. Marcy not only has to deal with the sudden attentions of Ted, her new boyfriend, but when she has to go to Woodstock he starts hanging out with Betty, who has a crush on Ted. Marcy has lost a lot of weight and is now being noticed by boys. At the camp she is put in charge of a group of young girls whom she is expected to shepherd through the beginnings of adolescence.
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