2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Diary of a Snoopy Cat by R.F. Kristi is a children’s book in the detective fiction genre. The protagonist is a curious cat named Inca who loves to explore and solve mysteries. It’s said that ‘curiosity killed the cat’ but thankfully in Inca’s case it’s only landed her in interesting adventures. The book is formatted like a private diary and is written from Inca’s point of view. Cute, hand drawn illustrations of the characters and situations add a personal flavour to the book.
The book opens with Inca introducing everyone in her family and neighbourhood. There are a lot of characters and detailed individual character histories. Inca, her family and her friends all seem to have led very exciting lives and only recently moved into the little village in England where they all live currently. With all the detail, it felt overwhelming at the beginning. As the book is part of a series about Inca, I would recommend young readers to begin with the first book as it will make it easier to follow. This is especially so since there are references thrown in to things that happened in previous books that I found confusing at first.
The main arc of the story revolves around Inca and her friends starting a pet detective agency and solving a neighbourhood mystery with the help of her neighbour, Monk. Meanwhile, Monk’s owner Solo (who happens to be a world famous detective) goes on a journey to the Himalayas with his detective dog Terrance to solve the mystery of his missing friend Raoul. Throughout the course of the book, Inca and Solo face dangerous situations to bring joy to their neighbours and friends.
The book is peppered with good moral lessons, including ones such as: not judging people (or animals, as is the case here) by how they look, the importance of teamwork, being brave in the face of danger and appreciating the loved ones we have around us. I would particularly recommend this book to young animal lovers and young detective fiction or mystery lovers as they would most enjoy this book.
Personally, I felt the characters were too one-dimensional and the villains in particular seemed more like caricatures. The writing style also occasionally felt stilted with slang phrases thrown in that seemed unnatural. This all negatively impacted my reading experience. However, it was an interesting concept. Therefore, overall I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
******
Diary of a Snoopy Cat
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like mingyums's review? Post a comment saying so!