From School Library Journal
YA?A delightful, albeit informal presentation. Barlow explains in her preface that the Dickens's children wrote about the pet that their father kept during the last years of his life. Wanting to increase the affection with which readers view the Victorian author, she chose to have his cat tell this story. And indeed readers do learn of family life and other social customs, not only of the Dickens family, but of the period as well. Some knowledge of Dickens is helpful to understand the book more fully. For example, quotes from some of his works are included, but the cat does not always identify them. Earlier incidents in Dickens's life are presented through stories he tells to the cat or to his own children. Nearly 100 photographs of the family and drawings reproduced from Dickens's works illustrate the text. They will be especially useful for students wanting to present a "visual" as part of their class assignment.?Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
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