3 out of 4 stars
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Ninja Spy Cats by R.F. Kristi is a book about a gang of detective cats. The main characters in the book are Polo, Cara, Fromage, Monk, Terrance, Charlotte and Inca. Inca is the founder of Inca & Company, a detective agency led by cats and dogs. Narrated by the leader of the ninja cats, the book is fast-paced and keeps the reader engaged throughout. The book starts with a discussion about Fromage doing trapeze acts in Kensington Park. Everyone denies this news by saying that Fromage is not capable of doing any such thing, but Fromage, who thinks that he is a ninja, tries to prove them wrong and succeeds.
The plot of this intriguing and adventurous storybook revolves around some documents which go missing from the French Embassy. The documents are hidden somewhere in the French embassy. There is news of a master spy coming from Prague to steal the documents from the embassy during a diplomatic gathering. The group plans to sneak in the embassy with Missy, who is catering for the party. As the story continues, the plot gets sophisticated with hidden identities and the cats must work hard to protect their human counterparts.
Ninja Spy Cats is the fourth book in the series, but I didn’t find any difficulty in understanding the role of any character. The writer has developed the characters very efficiently, giving backstories to each one of the animals. My best character among all was Fromage, who thinks that he is the real reason behind Missy’s success in the cheese business.
I was particularly impressed by the style of writing. Many authors tend to describe the characters in hefty lumps of text. This might work for adult novels, but it can kill a children’s book. Thankfully, this author is wise to this, cleverly mixing up speech, exciting deeds and the description of character and setting. Subsequently, the writing felt light and not at all like wading through cauliflower-cheese.
I was somewhat disappointed with the illustrations and layout of the book. The placement of the illustrations wasn’t good. Although the illustrations were colorful, but they were not so heart touching as they should have been. There were a few mistakes in the book. In the first chapter, the ‘Kensington Park’ has been written as ‘Kensington park.’ In the second chapter, when there is mention of the library, the writer has used ‘is’. It should be replaced by ‘was’.
I do enjoy a good adventure and R.F. Kristi, the author, has plotted it very well. He has given the reader an array of interesting characters to follow, and has framed everything descriptively. I rate the book 3 out 4 stars and recommend it to people with children aged 7-10. The few mistakes made me give one less star, but overall the book is still of a 4 out of 4 star quality.
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Ninja Spy Cats
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