To Be A Cat

Matt Haig

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Published by Bodley Head Childrens, part of Random House Children's Publishers UK

Format: Hardback

£10.99

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Details

EAN: 9780370332062
Published: 2 Feb 2012

About the book

Synopsis

Barney Willow thinks life couldn't get any worse. He's weedy, with sticky-out ears. Horrible Gavin Needle loves tormenting him - Barney has no idea why. And headteacher-from-hell Miss Whipmire seems determined to make every second of Barney's existence a complete misery! Worst of all, Dad has been missing for almost a year, and there's no sign of him ever coming home.

Barney just wants to escape. To find another life... Being a cat, for example. A quiet, lazy cat. Things would be so much easier - right?

Barney's about to discover just how wrong he is. Because he's about to wake up as a cat - and not just any cat. Gavin Needle's cat...

A fast, exciting story from the winner of the Gold Smarties Award, with illustrations from the brilliantly dark and mischievous Pete Williamson.

Press

What the critics say

To Be a Cat will certainly appeal to readers of his earlier book, Shadow Forest, which won the Smarties Gold Award, and the book will be publicised by way of a national tour by the author
- The Bookseller

I loved To Be A Cat. It's very funny and surprising and somehow the basic concept, which is certainly an unusual one, works brilliantly . . . And I absolutely love child protagonists who READ!
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Paul Gallico wrote a plangent novel along similar lines in Jeannie, but here instead is the black comedy that made Matt Haig's Shadow Forest so irresistable
- The Times

Magic and grim realism meet in this sharply comic tale of wish fulfilment and the inherent untrustowrthiness of felines . . . there are definite echoes of Roald Dahl throughout
- Teach Primary

A great read, exciting with many unexpected twists and turns . . . It is a clever, funny and scary story and will appeal to Roald Dahl fans ready for a more sophisticated read
- The School Librarian

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