3 out of 4 stars
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Diary of a Snoopy Cat is a brilliantly written children's story created by R.F. Kristi and illustrated by Jorje Valle. This lovely narrative begins with an ambitious kitty named Inca that aspires to become the shrewdest cat detective in the world. Inca decides that she wants to keep a journal so that she can accurately record her escapades and share her delightful experiences with everyone. Her diary starts with a brief description of her primary family and then begins to log events in chronological order.
At some point in the story, Inca meets up with a feline friend named Monk. He is her neighbor and is owned by a big shot human detective named Solo. The man has a trusty canine partner named Terrance, that is quite a reputable dog detective himself. Monk tells Inca and her siblings to come over to his house and Terrance proceeds to tell the group about a man named Raoul that went to Mount Everest in the Himalaya's and vanished shortly after. Terrance, Solo, and his assistant Hobbs embark on a journey in the hope of finding Raoul. Inca and her animal friend's and family eventually end up having to solve a mystery of their own.
I was pleased to find that this book is loaded with plenty of funny material to keep the story entertaining, and is by far the best strong point of this tale.The vocabulary is appropriate for young readers within the range of 9-12 years of age. This narrative contains a fairly large cast of characters with some having weird personality traits that enhance the humorous aspects of this book. Jorje Valle's illustrations are not too shabby, and this tale is a real treat for any animal lover, or enthusiast. Although this story is great, I still discovered some flaws that negatively affected my overall experience from reading this book.
I will not mention any spoilers, however I will say that this narrative has a predictable antagonist and plot. This is easily the greatest weakness that holds back Diary of a Snoopy Cat from being a masterpiece. It was incredibly easy to find out the identity of the main culprit that even Inca's entire team already suspected the person. Another issue I had is that I noticed that most characters lack depth in their personality. Boss is the only one that gets a dramatic change of character in my opinion. I was disappointed that us readers don't get to experience Terrance and Solo's perspective of the events that occurred in the Himalaya's in the search for Raoul, but this is forgivable considering the diary is written from Inca's point of view. Last but not least, us readers never find out what happens to the antagonist when the case is solved.
In spite of it's weaknesses, it is quite difficult to hate this book. The writing is funny and clever and will keep most readers interested from start to finish. I also understand that reading the other books in the series would help deepen my understanding of the characters, and for this reason, I rate this tale 3 out of 4 stars.
Diary of a Snoopy Cat will effortlessly charm young readers between the ages of 9-12. The writing in the story is already above average quality but can still be modified to include a better plotline and a more unexpected villain. The artwork is perfectly fitting for this kind of tale and the humor is top notch. With that being said, I would not recommend this book to a hardcore mystery lover but I would suggest to anyone else that loves animals and appreciates good, clean humor to buy this book.
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Diary of a Snoopy Cat
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