The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale

By Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright
Rating: 4 1/4 stars


Skilley is a street cat who wishes for a home.  When he discovers that the Cheshire Cheese Inn is overrun with mice, he manages to sneak in and make a show of catching one to impress the owner and earn a place to stay.  But when he is out of sight, he spits out the mouse and tells him to scram.  The mouse is named Pip, and Pip happens to have learned how to read and write when he befriended the daughter of the innkeeper, Nell.  Pip quickly learns Skilley's secret--he loves to eat cheese, not mice.  The mice agree to keep Skilley fed with the award-winning cheese at the inn if he agrees to pretend to hunt them without eating them.  And thus, a friendship is born.  But trouble comes along when the most disreputable of street cats, Pinch, also makes his way into the inn.  And Pinch had no problems with eating mice.  Add a mysterious hidden visitor living upstairs whose safety may help save England from war, and you've got a good story!   If you are familiar with Charles Dickens (also a character) who wrote such books as A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist, then you will be happy to hear the names of various characters and will be pleased with the plot, as they are just as he himself might have written it.  A wonderful story that animal lovers or just regular folks will like.

The Outlaw Varjak Paw

By SF Said

Animal: Cats

Rating: 4 stars

Reviewed by Noelle

This is the sequel to Varjak Paw (see review). Varjak, Holly, Tam and their dog friend Cludge are in hiding. Sally Bones and her gang have long been a menace in the city, but groups had their own territories. Now Sally Bones wants to take over the whole city. The thin white cat with one blue eye has laid down a new "law"--all food goes to her gang. Anyone bucking her law earns her punishment of having their ears and tails cut off. And anyone helping the outlaw Varjak Paw may also suffer injury from her gang. With Sally Bones being the one other cat that Varjak has met that knows the secret "Way," Varjak knows he can't beat her. Even worse, Varjak feels like he has lost his powers. But as he watches dozens of other cats miserable and at the mercy of Sally Bones, Varjak knows he has to act and stand up to Sally once and for all, even if it means he will die trying. Will Varjak find a way to beat Sally, even without his powers? Although not quite as good as the first book, this fast-moving sequel full of adventure will keep fans happy.