THE CAT MUMMY

Author: Jacqueline Wilson Illustrator: Nick Sharratt Rating: 10/10 Age: 8+ Genre: Fiction, Family Pages: 96 Published in: March 2002 Main Characters: Verity, Gran, Miss Smith, Mabel, Dad

Synopsis: Verity is a young school girl who has an old, miserable cat named Mabel. Verity always wished she could have pets like her friends, and not a boring tabby cat that only left her bed to wait for Gran to open her tin of cat food. That is the only exercise Mabel took throughout the whole day. However, one afternoon, Verity had just come home from another tiresome yet exciting day at school when she realised Mabel had not been very well recently. She wouldn’t touch her food, and she was sick all over the elegant carpet! Verity rushed off to find Mabel, hoping that she would be alright. That day, Verity found her poor cat hiding in her wardrobe. Verity was relieved to find the cat, but her happiness quickly faded as she realised that something was not right. Poor Mabel had died. Verity was heartbroken, and she began to notice how much Mabel meant to her. In Verity’s school, she had been learning about ancient Egyptians, and how they always preserved dead bodies. She tried to make Mabel into a mummy, by wrapping her up in heaps of cloth. Verity also figured out that Mabel’s body did not smell very pleasant, so she used her gran’s bath salts to try to reduce the smell. Unfortunately, this did not work out very well for poor Verity, and her Gran could sense the awful smell coming from Verity’s wardrobe. When Verity had come back from school the next day, Verity had no other clothes to put on, as they were all in her foul-smelling wardrobe! The only thing she had to wear was her old fairy frock, which barely even fitted her. She felt like a total fool, but she couldn’t help this. She hoped that Gran would not become too suspicious… In the evening, Verity’s teacher (Miss Smith) came round to drop off Verity’s book bag, as she had left it in school. Gran pleaded her to go and find some decent clothes to wear, but Verity knew she couldn’t! Gran angrily stomped upstairs and Verity was terrified… Did everyone unravel Verity’s secret about Mabel? Did Verity ever get a new cat again? Read this awesome book to find out!

Why I like this book: I like this book because it is a very engaging tale to read. This book also has a moral not to keep a secret, and it is all explained very clearly, but in a humorous way!