It's always rather superb when our planned reviews are topical, or segue nicely with something that's being tweeted about. As the excellent "Play by the Book" discusses the secret lives of cats, we were putting the finishing touches to our thoughts and impressions on Charlotte Voake's excellent 'Ginger and the Mystery Visitor'.
Charlotte is an absolute master of peeking into the psyche of our feline friends. As we're absolute dyed-in-the-wool cat people, we love it when someone precisely nails cat-like behaviour in their books.
Ginger and the Kitten live rather a charmed life. Always warm, always well fed, and they enjoy each other's company (very rare for cats!) so when a mysterious visitor peeks through the window at them one day, they wonder who the newcomer is.
The rather cheeky so-and-so goes one step further when one day Ginger and the Kitten find the miscreant lovingly licking their cat bowls clean.
Ginger and Kitty's clever owner comes up with a plan. She attaches a note to the cat's collar and sends it off on its merry way. The note says "Do I belong to Anyone?" and they wait patiently to see what happens next with the mystery moggy...
The rest of the story is yours to discover. There's so much charm and so many knowing nods to cats and cat owners in this book. I loved the expressions that Charlotte uses (the cat staring through the window, absolutely spot-on) and the book's a brilliant demonstration that even something that looks fairly classical and (some might even rudely say) old-fashioned can be utterly absorbing, entertaining and loved to bits by today's children (the book's only 2 years old btw - it just has the look and feel of the sort of books I remember as a child, a really nice touch and it works beautifully here).
Charlotte's best bit (apart from recognising her name on the cover): Kitten. But she asked why kitten didn't actually seem to do much except snuggle! (Answer - kittens do that, a lot).
Daddy's favourite bit: The cat facial expressions are so perfect, they almost make me giggle out loud. Charlotte Voake absolutely nails them every time!