Write a Review Wednesday: Mrs. Crump’s Cat

Aspiring writer of children fiction and blogger Tara Lazar started a meme entitled ‘Write a Review Wednesday‘ as a way to show support to authors of kids literature. I love reading and writing stories for kids but I had never written a book review before until last weeks’ WARW, The Man on the Moon. So it’s Wednesday again and I wanted to pick something from our collection that my children love but isn’t perhaps well known. Actually my seven year old suggested this weeks pick.

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Mrs. Crump's Cat

We are large cat lovers in our family, so we’re partial to books about cats, especially my oldest daughter. So when we stumbled upon Linda Smith and David Roberts book Mrs. Crump’s Cat (age 4-8), we had to add it to our personal library.

‘Found: One sneaky finichy troublesome wet yellow cat with fleas’

Okay, maybe Mrs Crump isn’t a cat lover, at least that’s what she thinks when a stray arrives on her doorstep one rainy night. From the moment the cat arrives Mrs. Crump is determined to send it on it’s way. But each day she seems to find another reason to not let it go.

The story paints a picture of a lonely older woman who, by way of opening her own front door, encounters a cat that causes her to open her heart. With each moment Mrs Crump spends in the presence of the cat, which she is determined to get rid of, she seems to not be so sad or lonely. She now greets the shop keeper, something she never did before, and her walks home don’t seem as long as they use to before.

Art deco illustrations add warmth

David Roberts art deco like illustrations add to the warm of the story. The wonderful golden cat appears like a bronze art deco statue, lean with clean, smooth lines

My kids have read this story many times and they still enjoy revealing what Mrs Crump will do or buy next that keeps her from releasing the cat. Cat lover or not, I think readers can relate to the desire to feel wanted, needed and loved and Mrs. Crumps Cat, published by Harper Collins Children’s Books, illustrates this delightfully.

If you would like to add this to your personal library you can buy at on Amazon.ca. Or perhaps one of these other books reviewed as part of Write a Review Wednesday:

Becky Levine’s review of Mouse was Mad

Tara Lazar’s review of Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood?

What’s your family’s favourite book to read?

Sisters reading together.