To Be A Cat Nowa Ruda

Matt Haig's first novel for young readers, Shadow Forest, won the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award and the Nestle Children's Book Prize Gold Award. He is also the author of various adult novels, including the bestsellers The Last Family in England and The Radleys. Reviewers have called his writing 'totally engrossing', 'touching, quirky and macabre' and 'so surprising and strange that it vaults into a realm all of its own'. His books have been translated into 25 languages. He lives in York and is currently writer-in-residence for Booktrust. He assures us he has never, ever been a cat, despite rumours he was once a rather grumpy ginger moggy named Jeffrey. Barney Willow's life couldn't get any worse. He's weedy, with sticky-out ears. Horrible Gavin Needle loves tormenting him - Barney has no idea why. And headteacher-from-hell Miss Whipmire seems determined to make every second of Barney's existence a complete misery! 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. To find another life. To be a cat, for example. A quiet, lazy cat. Things would be so much easier - right? 'Darkly comic and richly rewarding' Telegraph What if I told you that tomorrow you'd wake up as a cat? That's right. You heard me. A cat. Whiskers, fur, four paws, a tail - the real deal. You might not believe me. But really, you should be thanking me. Most people don't have any kind of warning, you see. It comes as a complete shock to them. It came as a shock to Barney Willow . . . By the winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award and the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Gold Award From the winner of the Blue Peter Award, this is a funny, dark and exciting story about what it's like to wake up as a cat! "This is a clawed masterpiece . . . A book about being comfortable in your own skin rather than someone else's fur" "A darkly comic and richly rewarding story . . . Haig's book shines with originality - in the clever plot and the wit - and has a strong moral core" "I loved To Be A Cat. It's very funny and surprising and somehow the basic concept, which is certainly an unusual one, works brilliantly. I believed every moment . . . Miss Whipmire is a villain from hell but the sense of frustration that Barney has in his dealings with her are quite moving actually; it reminds me of many of the frustrations of childhood. And I absolutely love child protagonists who READ!" "Here is the black comedy that made Matt Haig's Shadow Forest so irresistible" "A terrific yarn with just the right mix of humour, surprise and page-turning peril"