Description
Dante is a black and white cat who likes to roam his sestiere of Venice but proudly refuses to wear a collar.
So when, one day, he fails to show up for his dinner, frantic owner Anna has no way to trace him. Where can he have got to?
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at any level
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
n.b. If you like this story, you may also enjoy Dante’s further adventure: ‘Dante, un’altra marachella‘.
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?
Felice (verified owner) –
Il libro per l’amante dei gatti e le loro avventure!
Jenny Rietdijk-Shepherd (verified owner) –
Read this in our Italian conversation group and we all loved the story. The level was just about right for us – simple enough to get the gist of what was happening but quite a lot of new vocabulary to try to guess the meaning of without resorting to a dictionary . Usually we get there among the 5 of us. The glossaries were useful but sometimes seemed rather arbitary, giving quite simple words and leaving out words impossible to guess or work out, but I suppose what you know and don’t know is very personal. Anyway, we all enjoyed reading about Dante. Thank you.
Helen Hensey (verified owner) –
Just loved it – a good little story – both sad and happy. I would recommend to anyone. Not too difficult to read, pushes you a little, but very manageable.
Thank you Daniel
Helen
Elsa –
I’d read the sequel (Dante, un’altra marachella) before this book and this one is just as enjoyable. Dante the cat is so true to life and it’s another unputdownable story.
Thoroughly recommended.
Sylvia May (verified owner) –
Well, what can you say about Dante? A cat after my own heart, an adventurer. Without giving any secrets away, this book is jam-packed with cliff-hangers. Maybe you need to be a cat lover, or just a free spirit, but this book comes highly recommended.
Caroline Livingston (verified owner) –
Mi è piaciuto molto questa storia carina. È facile comprendere a causa dello stile semplice, contiene però delle parole nuovi. I capitoli brevi sono utili per gli studenti.
Lora (verified owner) –
Thoroughly enjoyed the book! Great way to learn.
David Hood (verified owner) –
I’d certainly recommend this charming story for level B1. Plenty of new vocabulary and phrases. You don’t have to be a cat lover to enjoy it !
Anne (verified owner) –
I enjoyed this story and found it perfect for B1 level. This story has shorter chapters, which has its advantages: you can read it faster and it is ideal for use in a lesson with a teacher. There is a lot of good (and new) vocabulary in it, too. Definitely enough to keep you on your toes. Thanks for this wonderful learning aid.
George Wirgman (verified owner) –
I enjoyed this story which took me on from previous books. Reading material like this has done a lot to advance my understanding and has improved my conversational abilities.
Heather Sinclair (verified owner) –
I enjoyed the story ( I’m a cat lover) and there were certainly enough new words to keep me interested and wanting to go back to it to see how they are used.
I’m sorry to say,I found the reading very jerky and once I noticed that,it became very irritating! Possibly she was trying to slow down for a B1 level but the pauses,often right after the first word in a sentence,seemed in the wrong place. So that spoilt it for me. Otherwise,a lovely story!
I have the same reader in “Il vulcano” but she is not as noticeably “ jerky” in that reading.
easyreadersorg –
Thanks for the review, Heather, which I appreciate. ‘Il vulcano’ is a much higher level than this one and so will be read at a more natural speed of course. Part of the process of ‘slowing things down’ for lower-level learners is the judicious use of pauses.
Personally, I think Natalia has done a fine job with the audio for ‘Dante’. I listen to all of them before publication and wouldn’t hesitate to ask for an audio to be redone if I wasn’t happy with it.
Nevertheless, potential buyers are able to judge for themselves – all our ebooks have a free sample chapter, the link to which is displayed on the catalog page and on the product page for each individual ebook. Dante’s free sample chapter is here:
https://easyreaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Dante-gatto-vagante-SAMPLE.pdf (.pdf)
IN the free sample chapter, there’s a link to the audio for the entire story. It’s always at the top of chapter 1 in the free download.
This is the audio for ‘Dante’, for anyone who’s interested:
https://soundcloud.com/onlineitalianclub/sets/dante-gatto-vagante
Christine Bell-Booth (verified owner) –
Mi è piaciuto molto la storia. Il libro ha due di mie cose favorite…un gatto e la lingua italiana! Sono molto contento che la storia ha un fine felice.
Karen (verified owner) –
Dante is another little gem. 8 short chapters so easy to read two chapters over a coffee. There are enough new words and expressions to make it a good learning experience, but not so many to spoil the flow of reading it without a dictionary. A few nautical terms which I have had no reason to encounter before. All cat lovers will relate to the tale. The audio as always is clear and slow enough to follow. The variety in these easy readers means everyone should be able to find, not only the right level, but also the content for individual interest.
My favourite vocabulary :-
intrufolarsi – to sneak up
sgattaiolare- to sneak
accovacciarsi- to squat
frastornato-woozy
coccole- cuddles
digrinare- to grind
mettercela tutto- to do ones upmost
cinguetti- chirpings
malmesso- in a bad situation
senza fare storie- without complaining
Now all I have to do is incorporate these in a few conversations in order to imprint them.
Ruth –
I loved this book and found it very easy to understand the audio because it was so clearly read and at a pace which allowed me to notice things like word-order ( dev’essere sucesso qualcosa) – not usually possible for me when listening to more difficult audio books. One could really feel the sun and see Venice from a cat’s eye view.
Doreen Roche (verified owner) –
Loved the story,B1/B2 level is the right level for me,totally enjoyed Dante’s adventures!
Patricia (verified owner) –
I love this cat Dante. Listening to the story again while making “un brodo” on this chilly morning in Bologna is like replaying a favorite album! A good story, good cat trip in Venezia’s lagoon, a good ending, and easy to understand. The emotions are straightforward and relatable; the complexity is in the new vocabulary and expressions. I counted more than 15 useful new words or expressions! However, even before defining the new stuff, the reading is understandable even with cooking distractions.
I recommend adding Dante, gatto vagante to your “Easy Listening Library”.
(Full disclosure: I am a cat lover.)
Judy Jacques (verified owner) –
I loved it; even at this level it came across with a lively individual style. Next time I’ll follow suggestions to listen first. Can we have a sequel please.
(I did wonder whether the questions might have been more challenging.)
Fran Norris (verified owner) –
I have quite a library of these books and again this one was not only an enjoyable read but I also found it a great learning tool with new words and expressions. We can spend so much time learning lists of words but it’s these books that really teach us how to express ourselves.
Personally I print each one out and with coloured highlighters, pencil and eraser I start learning. They becomes my textbooks and having the audio is the absolute bonus. Thank you
Bill Carmichael (verified owner) –
Mi piace molto. Consiglio questo libro.
These books are quite short but you have to remember that you also get a full audio track, which you would not get with a normal book, which makes them good value for money and really useful for learners.
I listen to the audio, without the text, to see how much I understand. I then read the text without the audio; then I read the text and listen to the audio at the same time, and then finally I listen to the audio without the text again. So I read each chapter at least four times and get a lot out of it.
I would recommend you listen to the audio while cooking or ironing and you will be surprised how much of the Italian sticks in your head.
The story is simple but engaging and you want to find out what happens to Dante. The vocabulary and grammar are appropriate to this level I think, although birichino and ormeggiata floored me the first time around. That’s fine – I’ll know next time
At the end I wanted more – I wanted to find out if Dante had further adventures in Castello, if the boy who found him ever found out that the cat he saved had survived and where Anna goes from here.
Grazie e brava Marika Romano e bravo Daniel.
Pauline –
I love this book, beautifully written and just the right level for me .
Enjoyed the audio book too. Very happy to recommend it for B1/B2 level.
Nice that the story takes place in Venice too
Velma Thomas (verified owner) –
I loved this book, which is easy enough for me to read it straight through and understand it, but with lots of new words and phrases for me to learn and practice. A very engaging story. More like this please.
Margrit Stumvoll –
It’s a lovely book, and the best: it has a happy ending. Can recommend it to all catlovers!
June Marriott (verified owner) –
L’ho trovato molto utile, grazie.
Wendy Hartnell (verified owner) –
I adore this. I’m at level B1, although I read at a slightly higher level, I think. I also love Venice and cats. I decided to use this as an audio book to start with and was delighted to find I could easily follow the story. The reader speaks very clearly and slowly (although just occasionally I think she’s a bit close to the microphone) and I got half way through in about half an hour with some occasional replays. I can’t wait to finish it!