Trouble at the Cat Cafe (Poppy's Place) by Katrina Charman
| Trouble at the Cat Cafe (Poppy's Place) by Katrina Charman | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Louise Jones
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| Summary: A family decide to open a cat cafe but there is a lot of work to be done. Will it be ready in time for the grand opening? | |
| Buy? yes | Borrow? yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: July 2016 |
| Publisher: Stripes Publishing | |
| ISBN: 9781847157157 | |
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Trouble at the Cat Café is the second book in the Poppy's Place series about a family who adopt a number of homeless cats and decide to open a Japanese-style cat café. We meet up with Isla and her family as they are making the final preparations for their grand opening which will see their dream become a reality. There is still so much work to do, and more importantly, they still have to pass the all-important council inspection. Will everything be ready for the grand opening on Saturday?
This book series is 'purrfect' for young cat-lovers and has a light, easy-to-follow storyline and likeable characters. Isla lives with her mum, her grandmother, teenage sister Tilda and younger brother Milo. Milo is a particularly appealing character, as he is so caring and kind. He is also deaf and wears a hearing aid, but it doesn’t stop him living life to the full and getting up to mischief. Although we see the story through the eyes of the human characters, the cats are the real stars and are utterly adorable. I fell in love with the clever Poppy, who is always learning new tricks; and cheeky grey kitten Roo who is constantly getting into trouble.
The book provides some interesting topics for discussion; anxiety about starting a new school, bullying, disability and animal welfare. Although the book is light-hearted in tone, it will hopefully raise awareness about the plight of abandoned and homeless animals and the strain felt by rescue centres. The book also shows that not everyone is kind to animals, but that there are things that we can do to help make things better; like supporting our local pet shelters.
The text is complimented beautifully by Lucy Truman's engaging illustrations. She has captured the characters perfectly and her pictures of the cats are particularly sweet, especially the image of the black cats Victoria and Albert cuddling up together as they sleep.
As a parent, the only thing that concerned me about the story is that it seems to advocate 'pester power' as a way of children getting what they want; in this case, more pets. For example, in one scene, Isla's friend tells her that she has been pestering her dad for weeks to get a new kitten and he has finally given in. The book says ...she knew how persuasive Grace could be when she set her mind to something. Likewise, there are several instances in the book where Isla 'persuades' her mum to get more cats (they already have seven!) and meets very little resistance.
Like Isla in the story, I have always loved cats, so this book was a real treat. Many thanks to the publishers for my review copy.
If you want to see how the story started, we recommend The Home-Made Cat Cafe
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You can read more book reviews or buy Trouble at the Cat Cafe (Poppy's Place) by Katrina Charman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Trouble at the Cat Cafe (Poppy's Place) by Katrina Charman at Amazon.com.
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