The Improbable Cat by Allan Ahlberg illustrated by Peter Bailey

A kitten appears in the garden on the day of younger sister Josie's seventh birthday party. Everyone welcomes the little bundle of joy. Everyone except the family dog Billy, baby Luke because he is too young and our narrator twelve year old David. Luckily, well we don't know this at the time, but luckily David is allergic to cats. 

Right from the earliest days with this kitten David suspects some thing is not quite right:

"Food. I didn't notice at first, but mum wasn't buying any of the usual brands of cat food. No, it was more like sardines and pilchards, salmon even. Salmon for a cat."

"Even from the start I must have sensed something was wrong. I mean, take that first evening: a limping kitten, which once it got into the house never limped again, and after a day or so never miaowed again either. Or purred. Or, as far as I could see, (never) even washed itself."

David watches in horror as his family disintegrate around him.  His once organised mum becomes disorganised and distracted. His neat and tidy librarian dad is dishevelled and also distracted and his sister is mesmerised. The cat grows larger each day spending all its time inside in darkened rooms watching mindless television surrounded by dirty food bowls. The cat seems to be controlling their minds.

What can David and his friend George do? The family need to be rescued but how?

I had not seen or heard of this book published in 2002 (still in print) by the wonderful UK writer Allan Ahlberg. I was in for a huge shock. This is NOT a little junior chapter book even though it is short (108 pages), contains lots of pencil illustrations and has an inviting cover.  This is a book for fans of Paul Jennings titles such as A different Dog; A different Boy; and A different land. The Improbable Cat will appeal to readers aged 10+.  There is some very strong language in this book - some of it made me gasp. This story also reminded me of an older Australia series called After Dark published by Lothian (all sadly out of print). Books like The Spirited Boy by Libby Hathorn illustrated by Chris Lynch; The Puppet by Ian Bone illustrated by Shaun Tan and The Playground by Shaun Tan.

Back to The Improbable Cat.

Kirkus "Do not be deceived by the diminutive trim size and aloofly posed but pettable-looking feline on the cover: there’s nothing warm or fuzzy about this eerie tale of a family enslaved by an adopted stray."

If you can cope with the strong language I mentioned previously then this book would make an interesting read aloud title for an older Primary group. 

You can see some other work by Peter Bailey here.