Cuddle the Cutest Kitten: Magical Friends

Hayley Daze's Cuddle the Cutest Kitten is a magical animal story for 6 year olds about two new neighbours and a kitten who arrives on a sunbeam.

What happens

Grace has just moved to Catterton from a farm, and she's feeling a bit lonely. Then a curly head pops up over the garden fence. It's Olivia from next door, and she knows a secret way through (a loose panel that works like a giant cat flap).

Neither girl is allowed a cat. Olivia's dad sneezes at the sight of one, and Grace has a new baby brother.

So when the clouds part, a bell jingles and a kitten appears on top of Grace's pile of removal boxes, it's a very big moment. She's white with one black ear, black socks and a crooked tail. She loves a tummy tickle. They call her Cuddle, of course!

Who wouldn't want a kitten like that? But Cuddle is more than cute. When she purrs, the girls start to tingle and giggle, the garden spins, and they wake up in the sand beside a brand-new pyramid. They're in ancient Egypt.

There they meet Beset, who's in big trouble. The Pharaoh's kitten, Cleo, is the guest of honour at a celebration, and she's gone missing. So the girls follow two sets of tiny paw prints to a secret door, through a twisty maze of corridors and into a room full of treasure.

It's a gentle kind of adventure. There's a dark tunnel and a spooky moment with a big statue (it's only a statue, phew). Grace is scared of the dark, but she always carries a penlight in her pocket, which is very handy.

What your reader will probably love most is how practical these two are. Olivia wants to be a movie star and gives Cleo a makeover. Grace empties her pockets of string and sweet wrappers and builds a cat toy on the spot. The whole story comes in eight short chapters, and it ends safely back home in the garden.

What to read next

If your reader falls for Cuddle, she's back in Superstar Dreams. This time the kitten magic whisks Olivia and Grace onto a stage, right inside a magician's box, with an audience watching.