2 out of 4 stars
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This children’s book is about a kitten called Inca who is from Paris but has since moved to London with his family and owner. Inca suggests that because her life is so exciting she feels the need to start a diary. Since arriving in London she has been involved with a detective adventure and it is now her dream to become the world’s smartest cat detective. One particular night Inca is approached by Monk, their neighbor cat who lives with a world-famous detective and a big dog called Terrance. Monk announces that there is some unexpected news for the kittens. This leads to a detective mission, which they embark on in order to help their friend Polo find his father.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. This book would definitely appeal to children and the main reason why I enjoyed this children’s book is because it is a lovely idea that clearly had a lot of thought put into it and had it been executed a little bit more precisely I would have absolutely rated it higher. It uses animals as characters which children adore, it uses a personal point of view from Inca to talk directly to the audience and it tries to be exciting all the way through. There are also excellent similes such as ‘the fur on the back of my neck rose like a porcupine ready for battle’ which creates a visual for the children and helps them understand what is happening in the story.
However, the reason I did not give this book 3 or 4 stars was not that I disliked it at all, because as stated previously I think children would really enjoy it! Unfortunately, I find it to be quite inconsistent and difficult to follow – which for a young audience is not ideal as children very quickly lose interest when they do not understand something. There are quite complex words such as ‘rigmarole’ or ‘humanoid’ and phrases that aren't best suited for a young target audience, for example ‘you can bet your bottom dollar’ and ‘bee in her bonnet’, which is not something children understand very well in my own experience as a trainee primary school teacher. There appears to be few too many characters that could cause confusion for the audience, especially as two of these characters are called ‘Polo’ and ‘Solo’ which could easily cause a mix-up leading to confusion for the rest of the story.
There is very inconsistent and excessive use of punctuation such as question marks and exclamation marks which is not grammatically correct and does not make the book look professionally edited. Despite the fact that it is a diary and its purpose is to be more impersonal and child-friendly, using five exclamation marks at a time could encourage children in the thought that this is the correct way to use punctuation.
With some tidying up of punctuation, fewer characters to avoid confusion and a clearer plot this would be an excellent story for children in primary school!
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Diary of a Snoopy Cat
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