3 out of 4 stars
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The Diary of a Snoopy Cat
Review
I read R.L. Kristi’s The Diary of a Snoopy Cat twice to give it a fair review. This is the second children's book in The Inca Book Series that features the confident, adventurous Inca, a Siberian kitty. The author takes the reader on a fun-filled, feel good journey from the perspective of Inca herself. I give this book 3 out of 4 stars.
The Diary of a Snoopy Cat begins with Inca’s family tree, which is very helpful as there are many diverse characters in this children’s book to keep track of. In the preamble (Ramble…Ramble…Preamble), Inca shares some very funny insights to the main characters, weaving their stereotypical animal behaviors as well as her thoughts about humans. Kristi uses several eye-catching text features to engage the reader in the beginning of the story. She continues with fewer text features in the remainder of the book. There are also about 15 black and white illustrations in the 182 page book as well as list of indented text to share Inca’s thinking. Each chapter begins as a diary entry with a countdown to Christmas. Inca keeps a diary because she wants to share her experiences as a detective cat par excellence. There are a couple instances where a word is repeated twice in the same sentence (e.g. the word window) and one typo where the word my is in the space that should say by. Overall, the text is easy to enjoy.
In the first part of The Diary of a Snoopy Cat, Inca and her friends become aware of a friend who is somewhere in the Himalayas. The characters decide how they will help Señora see her missing Raoul who was injured and being cared for by locals. With humor and a knowledge of the region, the team put together a decisive plan to rescue Raoul. In the next adventure, Inca must help her human friend Ned keep the home bequeathed to him in the will of a man who was like a father to him. Inca uses her detective expertise, sense of humor and abilities of a cat to solve the problem. There are a couple of funny setbacks that keep the reader’s interest.
As the story continues, the characters prepare for Christmas and learn of one feline who is forced to participate in a cat show. The hilarity ensues when Monk shares his experience. The characters learn that Raoul is home safe but has not fully recovered from his injury. The final days before Christmas are filled with the troupe learning about Raoul’s safety, planning Christmas dinner and reuniting the Señora with her husband.
My concerns with the book are the number of characters and the Raoul storyline. Inca introduces her family with brief comments about each one in the beginning of The Diary of a Snoopy Cat but the author begins the story with additional minor and major characters. The family tree and the preamble about each of the characters in Inca’s family is terrific because of its humor and gossip-style descriptions. The characters involved in the plot involving Raoul should have been included in the preamble or on the family tree to avoid confusion. The book would have been great if not for the story line with Raoul and the troupe. This adventure began at the beginning of the book and ended on the last few pages. It seemed like this story line was added to make the book longer as the characters referred to Raoul and his injury very briefly in the middle of the book.
The Diary of a Snoopy Cat was a great change from mysteries and adult fiction. The adventures of Inca and her troupe are comparable to similar characters in animated Disney movies. I was glad to see the detective the animals agreed on calling their business Inca and Company and look forward to reading about more of Inca’s adventures in the future.
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Diary of a Snoopy Cat
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