Catalina Incognito

Jennifer Torres's Catalina Incognito is a magical mystery for 7 year olds about a girl who likes everything JUST so.

What happens

Catalina arranges her books by colour and her clothes in alphabetical order. Her family call her Kitty-Cat, which she'd very much like them to stop. And she's definitely too old for all the kitten presents.

So when her great-aunt, a retired telenovela star famous for playing villains, hands her a tatty velvet sewing pouch on her birthday, it's hard to smile. She manages a "so... different" (Tía Abuela just cackles).

Then Tía Abuela mends Catalina's grey hoodie and sneaks two kitten ears onto the hood. Catalina pulls it on, walks home, and her own mum shoos her off the porch like a stray cat. The sewing kit is magic. The hoodie is a disguise!

The next day a ruby goes missing from Tía Abuela's famous Dragon Dress, right at the grand opening of the library's new children's room. Catalina is the only one who spots the gap. Of course she is.

Sneaking about as a sleek grey cat is a brilliant way to investigate. It's also a brilliant way to end up chased round the library by a kind librarian with a pet carrier (and a whole Baby Story Time crawling after you).

Reading it, you're right inside Catalina's head. She's a bit prickly and a bit proud, and very funny about it. Her rival Pablo Blanco is every bit as fussy as she is. When they check their watches, she corrects him to the second.

Underneath the mystery there's a gentle thread about getting things wrong. Catalina's first stitches are wonky. She won't try the skateboard again after last summer's wipeout. Then her big sister Coco admits she falls all the time when she's learning something new, and you can see it land.

Got a little perfectionist at home who'd rather not try than get it wrong? They'll probably see themselves here.

Spanish words and phrases pop up all the way through, usually with the meaning close by, so nobody gets lost. It's set in America, so expect the odd sidewalk too.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, The New Friend Fix brings Catalina and her sewing kit back for a new school year, with a new girl in class she's determined to meet before anyone else does.