An abandoned kitten....
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I read this book when I was 10 years old and it was an instant favourite. This is a children's book but PARENTS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT IT CONTAINS A FEW DISTRESSING SCENES. It would not be suitable for younger children (NOT a bedtime story) but it is a gripping story for those with more reading experience who are ready to tackle more serious subjects. Any children who have worked their way through the Harry Potter books will find this book extremely short and not particularly upsetting but will still enjoy the story.
The story is told simply but with realism - no cute and cuddly stuff here. A kitten is abandoned by the side of a road on the edge of the moors and left to fend for herself. We follow her journey from bewildered, starving kitten to highly-skilled hunter with her own kittens and beyond into the latter part of her life. The book is quite compact but each chapter is full of incident. The writing is excellent, evoking the thrills and dangers of the cat's world without losing any realism by over-dramatising the events. I was particularly impressed that the author strictly avoids giving the cat a 'humanised' character - he assigns only those emotions that you would expect a cat to feel in relation to its environment (fear, confusion, contentment, aggression etc).
This is an excellent book, suitable for both boys and girls but with a hard edge of realism that may upset younger children or more sensitive older children.
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