author
Emily Neville
1919–1997
Best known for the warm, streetwise charm of It’s Like This, Cat, this American writer brought everyday city life to children’s fiction with humor, honesty, and a real feel for how young people think. Her stories often balance family, independence, and growing up in a fast-moving world.
1 Audiobook
It's like this, cat
by Emily Neville
About the author
Emily Cheney Neville was an American author of children’s and young adult fiction, born in Manchester, Connecticut, on December 28, 1919, and best known for It’s Like This, Cat, which won the Newbery Medal in 1964. She studied at Bryn Mawr College and later worked in journalism before turning seriously to fiction.
Neville began publishing books in the 1960s and became known for realistic stories set in contemporary urban life. Her work often focused on ordinary kids facing recognizable problems, and readers responded to the natural dialogue, humor, and emotional steadiness in books such as Berries Goodman, The Seventeenth-Street Gang, Traveler from a Small Kingdom, and Fogarty.
She died on December 14, 1997. What still makes her stand out is how unforced her writing feels: she treated young readers seriously, wrote with warmth and clarity, and found drama in the small but important moments of everyday life.