2 out of 4 stars
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The Diary of a Snoopy Cat
I am in that category of people called ‘old’, but and at times I like to ‘regress’- try ‘to become a little child again’. Sometimes this is done by looking at a children or family movie, or by reading a children’s book. I get absorbed enough to enjoy the normal conflict between adult and childhood imagination. So the idea of cats and dogs being like ‘children’ in their own domain does not surprise me, and so it was easy to accept this book free for an honest review.
I liked the feel of the names of the cats and dogs involved in this story. And I liked that the characters were ‘pictured’, some very cutely - Fromage wears a beret, right? But I was conflicted between what I expected as a story, and had to accept what comes with a diary. I think that a child reading a diary (record of events occurring) would have to be somewhat more imaginative than usual in becoming a mental proxy for a character.
So whom do I choose to be: one of the Inca family or Inca herself; Terrance, the dog away in the Himalayas (not much on his story); Fromage and his cheese encounters? The fact is that a diary does not necessarily have a flow as stories are expected to do. My adult side longed for an adventure; it came in the recovery of the will. And while as child reader I identified with Boss, I was, as adult reader left asking myself about the outcome.
This of course is the first book in the Inca series and I trust that in later books, the author makes the journey more adventurous and the characters more easily adaptable, especially to real youngsters, but also to ‘wannabe’ youngsters like myself. So my difficulty with this book may in fact lie with me - in this case I need more inducement ‘to be a child again’.
And I understand that the author does not pitch this book and the series at my age group. Fortunately, I never underestimate children’s ability, in this case to create a whole adventure of the characters and the detective agency, and carry these into the rest of the series. This book may be less of a story but a great introduction to the characters of the series. There is great promise here.
Series recommended for most youngsters.
Rating: 2 out of 4 - not as exciting as I hoped.
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Diary of a Snoopy Cat
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