"The Story of Tantrum O'Furrily" ushers the welcome return to picture books for Cressida Cowell. We're used to Cressida ruling middle grade fiction, but here she spins a gorgeous little modern fable, with the aid of some stunningly atmospheric illustrations from Mark Nicholas.
It's night time, and a stray cat and her kittens prowl the neighbourhood in search of food.
Mum cat wants to tell the kittens a story.
"Can we eat a story?" they ask.
Mum gently smiles, and tells them the tale of Tantrum O'Furrily, and a rather privileged kitten who is wrapped up nice and warm on a cold winter's night.
Restless, the little kitten wonders what is happening outside. Her curious nature leads her to a garden encounter with a wily fox, who rather fancies the idea of devouring a tasty little kitten up in one huge gulp!
But will someone save her before the fox gets his kitty dinner?
Delightfully the tale unfolds from two perspectives as the storyteller is revealed, and there's a gorgeous little moral tucked into the folds of this lovely book about judging people on first impressions rather than letting them prove their worth.
Destined to become a well-loved bedtime tale, it's snuggly, atmospheric and brilliant.
C's best bit: She just loved that kicker of a line "Can we eat a story?"
Daddy's favourite bit: We read this on a winter's night as the snow fell gently around us, and it felt like such a warm cuddly book with such a beautiful message. Perfect book of the week in fact!
"The Story of Tantrum O'Furrily" by Cressida Cowell and Mark Nicholas is out now, published by Hodder Children's Books (kindly supplied for review).