A Friend Called Alfie

Rachel Wells's A Friend Called Alfie is a warm, gently funny cat's-eye story for 11 year olds about a doorstep cat whose family has just been given a puppy.

What happens

Alfie tells the story himself. He's a doorstep cat, which means he has several human families on Edgar Road instead of just one (and he's very proud of how good he is at it). His son George is a kitten, though George would argue he's a proper cat by now.

They're both still sad. The cat George thought of as his mum died before the book begins, and the opening chapters give them time to grieve. There's a lovely moment on holiday in Devon when George picks out a bright star and decides it's her.

Then Polly turns up with something wriggling in her arms. A pug puppy! He'll be at Alfie's house most days, and the children vote to call him Pickles.

Alfie has never liked dogs (he's never actually met one, as George points out). George is horrified. Pickles, meanwhile, eats Alfie's breakfast, chases his own tail and asks if they're his new friends.

George's answer is to teach Pickles how to be a cat. Who wouldn't want to see how that goes? Later, with Christmas coming, George hears that someone on Edgar Road has gone into hospital and sets out to cheer them up, with Pickles in tow and not always helping.

It's very much Alfie's voice. He's fussy, a bit vain and worries about everyone he loves. You also get his running commentary on the humans, like Jonathan huffing and puffing over fitting the suitcases in the car.

It's worth knowing that a lot of the human story is quite grown-up. A new job is putting a strain on a marriage. A neighbour getting over a horrible divorce talks about her "darker thoughts". There's loss in Alfie's past too, starting with his first owner. None of it is graphic, but a reader hoping for nothing but cat-and-puppy comedy might find the grief heavier than they expected.

If your reader loves an animal who notices everything, they'll probably settle happily into Alfie's world. This is a later book in the series, and the Alfie stories begin with Alfie the Doorstep Cat.

What to read next

For another family seen through an animal's eyes, try I, Cosmo. Cosmo is an old golden retriever who decides it's his job to hold his family together when his parents keep arguing.