Atticus Claw Learns to Draw

Jennifer Gray's Atticus Claw Learns to Draw is a funny and slightly spooky cat-detective caper for 7 year olds that starts with a pickle-painting competition.

What happens

Atticus Grammaticus Cattypuss Claw used to be the world's greatest cat burglar. Now he's a police cat, and on a rainy Saturday he'd very much like a snooze.

Instead, Callie and Michael enter him into a competition. He dips his paws in paint, makes a lovely colourful splodge, and Inspector Cheddar says it doesn't look anything like a pickle. (Callie explains that it doesn't have to.)

Then Atticus WINS. The prize is a trip to Butteredsconi's pickle factory, which includes a ride through a tunnel under the sea where giant plastic teeth chomp at your whiskers.

The owner, Ricardo Butteredsconi, loves pickles and loves art. His favourite thing of all is pickled art. His pet pig, Pork, is someone Atticus knows from his burgling days. And Pork really doesn't like Inspector Cheddar!

What makes it such fun is Atticus himself. He's vain and greedy and quite sure cats are better than humans at everything. When the pickle man shakes his paw with sweaty hands, Atticus wipes it on Inspector Cheddar's jacket. Your reader will love being on his side.

Meanwhile a gang of villains (three magpies, a parrot, a ginger cat and a Russian mistress of disguise) are dreaming up their revenge. Their chapters are gloriously gross, with a LOT of poo.

It's worth knowing this one gets properly creepy for this shelf. A tourist leaflet tells a story about a doctor experimenting on dead bodies. The ride ends with a spooky voice going on about preserving BODIES. And Mr Butteredsconi dreams out loud about adding a pickled human to his collection. Atticus even has a nightmare about it.

It's silly rather than scary, but a child who spooks easily might want you nearby for those bits. If they like a shiver with their giggles, they'll be fine.

It isn't the first Atticus Claw book, and his story is easiest to follow from the start, in Atticus Claw Breaks the Law.

What to read next

If your reader loves a clever cat who thinks he runs the place, try Ra the Mighty, the first book about Pharaoh's very lazy, very pampered cat, who gets bullied by a beetle into solving a crime.