riteshkala

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The Kiwi series by author Vickie Johnstone continues as Kiwi and her friends enter another adventure. For those who are new to the series, here is a little background. Amy and James, two kids own a cat named Kiwi, who is magical, and can turn the kids into kittens and take them to Cat City. Over the last two books, they have met a number of ‘catizens’ there, who return to this story.

This book starts with Amy, James and Kiwi having the same nightmare about a three legged grey cat, trapped in a big scary house. As they begin to investigate, they realize that the house in their nightmare actually exists and was involved in a fire. Kiwi and the kids start to search for the house and this leads them to meet a number of new animals in the forest where the house was situated. These include a robin who helps them on their way and squirrels that now live in the tree that exists at the place where the house was previously located. As their search continues, they find their three-legged cat that is named Misty, and also find the reason why she is trapped in the house.

What they do not realize is the danger lurking there, and they manage to get trapped. Amy and James somehow escape and run back to Cat City to get help. This is the only small part in the story which takes place in Cat City in this book. Most of the story plays out in the human world. I really loved the scene where the catizens get to ride on the bus. These scenes had me laughing out loud.

The catizens, along with Amy and James work hardtop rescue Misty, and after a few scary and tense pages finally succeed. In the end the mystery of the house and its ‘bad’ magic is solved, but to find out how, you must read the book.

This may be a somewhat scary story, but the adventure and the fun does not diminish one bit. And fear not, as with all good stories, the ‘good’ side wins in the end (this is after all children’s book and not high fantasy where authors relish in killing off one of their main characters).

Finally, I have to say that parents now do not need to compromise and read the ‘juvenile’ books meant for kids as here is an option which would be interesting for the kids as well as their parents. I may be an adult, but I still read each of Vickie’s stories with bated breath and expectation of new twists and newer characters in every book. With the coming introduction of illustrated paperbacks for the Kiwi series, the books may well move beyond five star category.