The Star Ka'at Series

by Andre Norton

 

Star Ka`at ~ 1976;

They weren’t ordinary cats. There was something strange about the way they looked at Jim and Elly, as if they could see inside their minds and knew exactly what they were thinking. And they could talk – by telepathic messages instead of speech.
They were the Star Ka’ats, a super-intelligent race of cats from outer space. They had come to Earth on a special mission. But when the two children crossed their path, the Star Ka’ats suddenly found their plans might have to change…

 

Star Ka`at World ~ 1978;

“I can’t do it” Jim pounded his fist on his knees as he squatted before the food machine.
Jim and Elly Mae had both tried to get meals from the food machine but usually it meant that they just sat there getting hungrier and hungrier.
Jim’s frustration and dependence on the Ka`ats – the telepathic race of supercats who rescued him and Elly Mae from doomed Earth – increases and drives him to the forbidden city, unknown and dangerous…

 

Star Ka`ats and the Plant People ~ 1979;

There was something alive down there and it was afraid and terrible pain.
“We gotta help…’ Elly Mae held her hands pressed over her ears. “We gotta go down there and help”
Jim and Elly Mae have set off to find the source of the metal urgently required by the Ka’ats, the race of telepathic supercats with whom they’ve made their home.
But as they fly over a glass-domed island in the sea, some strange, unknown creatures call desperately for help…

 

Star Ka`ats and the Winged Warriors ~1981;

When Jim Evans and Elly Mae Brown joined forces with the superior and benevolent race of ka’ats, a large contingent of earth cats joined them in their journey from Earth to the ka’at home on the planet Zimmorrah. Elly Mae and Jim quickly proved their usefulness and contentment with the ka’ats. Some of the earth cats, however, found the adjustment difficult, with disturbing effects.
Seeking to utilize the combative talents of a group of the discontented earth cats, Jim and Elly Mae join Tiro and Mer and others on an interplanetary journey to another ka’at colony where life forms have grown to monstrous proportions and have been nearly exterminated the struggling ka’at colonist. Bees the size of large dogs, wasps bigger that wild turkeys, and praying mantises taller than Jim attack the travelers and seek to destroy them.

 

Star Ka'ats ~ 2020;

Intelligent, talking Ka’ats come to Earth on a strange mission. In ancient days, Ka’ats had visited Earth and some had stayed to live in peace with humans. Then the humans cruelly turned against their friends. Now Ka’ats from outer space have come back to try to rescue their cat kin.

Although the Ka’ats believe that humans are inferior, warlike beings, they form a deep attachment to two young orphans, Jim and Elly Mae. Their relationship plunges Jim and Elly Mae into adventures living on the Ka’at planet and helping Ka’ats and other aliens.

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View a 1981 review in Andre's local area newspaper (PDF)

View 1978 promotional item from Walker for the Star Ka`at Series (PDF)