Dickensblog

By Selenia, guest blogger

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright; illustrations by Barry Moser (Peachtree Publishers, 2011).

Skilley is an alley cat who has the chance of a lifetime—to live at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a hot spot for writers and home of the finest cheese in London. But Skilley also has a secret—one that sends events into motion and ultimately shows him to be unlike any other alley cat anyone has ever come across.

With a wide array of animal and human characters, each with their own unique and interesting personalities (not to mention several with secrets of their own), The Cheshire Cheese Cat reads similarly to a Dickens novel, and contains a suspenseful climax involving several of the characters. The beautiful illustrations enhance the book’s value and help the reader gain a better picture of the world of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

What initially interested me in the book, aside from the title, was the mention of Charles Dickens as a character in the book. The only other book I’ve read that includes Dickens as an actual character is The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee. I must say, the creators of The Cheshire Cheese Cat did a wonderful job portraying Dickens. In my mind, if I had been lucky enough to meet Dickens, he would have been just as he was described in this book. For that alone I would recommend it, although the story, its characters (Queen Victoria even makes an appearance!), and its pace are more than enough to recommend this book.

In all, I would give the book a 4.5/5. (The extra .5 that I kept from the score has to do with a small plot point that I didn’t know what to make of, but that I won’t mention because it involves the backstory of one of the characters, and the book is fairly recent so I will avoid spoilers.) I think young people are very lucky to have literature such as this available for them. I found myself wishing this book had been written when I visited the children’s area more often in the library, but then I realized I could enjoy the book just the same, and I did!

Selenia is a contributor at Junto 2.0 and blogs about books and libraries at Shelving Cart.

(Image copyright Peachtree Publishing. Review copy obtained from the reviewer's local library.)