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To Be a Cat
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To Be a Cat
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To Be a Cat
Audiobook5 hours

To Be a Cat

Written by Matt Haig

Narrated by Chris Pavlo

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

Barney Willow thinks life couldn't get any worse. He's weedy, with sticky-out ears. Horrible Gavin Needle loves tormenting him. And worst of all, Dad has been missing for almost a year, and there's no sign of him ever coming home. Barney just wants to escape, and find another life. Being a cat, for example. A quiet, lazy cat. Things would be so much easier - right?
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 1, 2012
ISBN9781407497716
Author

Matt Haig

MATT HAIG is the bestselling author of The Midnight Library. His most recent work is the non-fiction title The Comfort Book. He has written two other books of non-fiction and six highly acclaimed novels for adults, as well as many books for children. Matt Haig has sold more than a million books worldwide. His work has been translated into more than forty languages.

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Reviews for To Be a Cat

Rating: 4.2567568 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

37 ratings5 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Story about being happy with who you are a being grateful for what you have. The boy can only turn back into himself if he really accepts himself for who he is. Not a subtle message but an important message for children
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It was so good I will listen to it again ????
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a page turning children's book about a boy who is unhappy with his life, wishes to be a cat - and gets his wish! This unlocks the discovery that the whole world is full of cats who have turned into people, and people who have turned into cats. A growing up and learning 'my life is not as bad as I thought it was' book with themes of bullying and divorce. The Bad Guy is surprisingly bad and scary, she has killed the previous headmistress she is pretending to be and is using her skull as a pen pot on her office desk. Also, I did not expect the resolution to 'I wish my parents still lived together' to be 'he's much less annoying as a cat, he can move back in'.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I thoroughly enjoyed reading this to my 9yo, who also enjoyed it too. It led to debates about whether some people are cats or not - and for a while there we believed they might be!

    A fast paced, well-written, suspense-filled story about a boy Barney whose wish to become a cat comes true, and he realises that it's not always a good thing to get what you wish for. The underline message in this book is an important one: it is about accepting yourself and enjoy being who you are, because you are unique. In today's world children really struggle to remain true to who they are, wanting to fit in and make friends, especially with technology making it more difficult to connect and socialise in person.

    This book also tells the story of the bully - the truth about who they are and why they behave as they do. I really liked the characters, they were easy to engage with and to have an strong emotions about: the horrible Miss Whipmire, and Barney's lovely best friend Rissa. It was full of twists in the plot too, and the mystery of the identity of the Terrorcat. There was so much to enjoy.

    I would highly recommend this book. And I am rapidly becoming a Matt Haig fan.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Barney Willow is a normal twelve year-old boy. He is average height, he has a best friend called Rissa and his favourite book is The Water Babies. But life has been getting Barney down of late. His parents are divorced, his dad has mysteriously disappeared, the school bully has made Barney his favourite target, and his vile headmistress seems determined to send his education down the drain. So when Barney sees a cat lounging outside his house, he can't help but wish that he was one too. A lazy, pampered, cosy cat. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Unfortunately, he's about to find out that you should be very careful what you wish for - and that life as a cat is a whole lot more dangerous than he could ever have imagined...At first, I must admit, I wasn't sure if I was going to like the book or not. It is amusing and rapid-fire from the beginning, but until I got used to the style I found it a little manic and confusing. Then again, that same quality would make it a really good book to read aloud to younger children! As I settled into its rhythm it got better and better, and the general pace really picked up once Barney wasn't stuck in the helpless "Alas! Alack! No one knows it is I!" phase of his adventure. The plot became more coherent and lost its helter-skelter feel, and I was able to appreciate Haig's clever touch from a grown-up perspective even as I recognised how much a child would love the story too.There was so much to admire here, so many flashes of genius! The characters are superb, from completely average-and-utterly-relatable Barney to the evil Miss Whipmire, whose revolting brand of all-consuming villainy reminded me of Roald Dahl's nastiest characters. The names Haig employs, on the other hand, were more Pratchett-esque, the most striking example being Mr Waffle, Barney's boring English teacher. The kitty word-play was clever too - calling someone a 'flea-brained cretin' or having an idea 'so good that it shone in her mind like an oil-sleek sardine in a can'. It really made me smile! There were some obviously educational moments - like Rissa's interest in astronomy and Barney The Cat's trip to the library - but these never felt too heavy or out of place. I also enjoyed Haig's smart-alec interjections on the role of an author and the process of writing - they reminded me of William Goldman's The Princess Bride - though they sometimes felt a little self-conscious and I thought they'd probably fly way over a child's head.The final verdict? Despite a slightly shaky start and a few tiny misfires, this was a clever and very warm story that would be perfect for children ages 9-12 or so, and could be read aloud to slightly younger children too. To me as an adult, it was pretty much an up-to-date children's version of books like Lady: My Life as a Bitch by Melvyn Burgess and Kafka's Metamorphosis (the latter of which is actually referenced at one point, to my delight). I think it'll be a real crowd-pleaser and a great book for kids (and their parents) to read over the school holidays - and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Haig's adult novel The Radleys in the next few months!