A figure slinks by sly and slow.

Sly and slow, well, fancy that …

It’s Grandma Murphy’s pussycat.

This is the story of Grandma Murphy’s pussycat who, in the dark of night, travels through the neighbourhood ‘From picket fence to tabletop. Along the lane, behind the shop.’ But where is he going?

Along the way he meets a great fearsome hound, ‘But does he flinch? Not in the least.’ As he admires the view from the top of a hill, he pauses before trotting off with his white-tipped tail wiggling on high, into the woods to a secret place. There are ‘hoots and screeches’ and a black-winged bat above. He has frogs to chase but, oh goodness what is that? ‘A nasty mean-eyed rodent pack.’ When in the distance he sees a bonfire burning surrounded by witches with pointy hats, could that be Grandma and he her pussycat?

This is a fabulous book. With dark slightly spooky, in a fun way, illustrations filling all the pages, the palette of different shades of purples with black and yellow inspire the mood. The cat is perfectly drawn to bring out his personality and the clever story told in rhyming text is simply made for reading aloud. A perfect pairing of author and illustrator.

Reviewed by Jane Stephens

Age Guide 2+

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

Maura Finn was born and bred in New Zealand, Maura Finn now lives in Melbourne with her husband and two young daughters. In her early writing days, she ran a rather lucrative playground business, swapping tailor-made poems for lunchbox leftovers. Now, many years later, she has rediscovered the joy and value of picture books through sharing them with her own children, and is delighted to think that her stories may contribute to other children’s love of reading.

Lucinda Gifford is a hard working illustrator who has drawn the pictures for over 40 books, as well as for lots of websites, videos and posters. She has been drawing since she was a toddler in Scotland, when her teacher marvelled at her unusually terrifying sketches of witches. Now Lucinda lives in Melbourne and has a marvellous job where she gets to draw every day. Lucinda’s favourite things to draw are castles, cavemen and creatures with big teeth or tentacles.