Daisy and the Trouble with Kittens

Daisy and the Trouble with Kittens, by Kes Gray, is a holiday story for 5 year olds, told by a girl who is absolutely certain that none of it was her fault.

What happens

Daisy tells you the ending first. There were kittens at the hotel in Spain, they were sooooooo cute, and she got into trouble. If they had looked like slugs instead, she says, none of this would have happened.

Then she goes back to the beginning, because you need to understand how she got to Spain in the first place.

Her nanny and grampy have some money they do not want, so Mum gets it and announces a summer holiday. Daisy runs straight upstairs and packs her football and all her toys into her school rucksack. Mum did not mean right now. Mum meant in about a month.

Nanny and grampy also give Daisy ten pounds of her very own. She has never been so rich. She considers a beach ball, then scuba gear, then a small yacht, then a harpoon gun, then a jet ski.

The four and a half weeks of waiting nearly finish her off. So does the suitcase, which will not shut even when she and Mum sit on it and bounce. The sun cream gets squashed and squirts over the bed. A hairbrush handle snaps. A heel comes off one of Mum's shoes, which is what happens when you pack eight pairs plus one more for emergencies.

The joke that runs all the way through is that every chapter starts with the trouble with something. The trouble with waiting. The trouble with suitcases. The trouble with rucksacks (you can never get anyone else to carry them). Your reader will start doing it too, out loud, at the dinner table.

It is also very good on being five and about to burst. Daisy rings her best friend to tell her the news. She runs three doors up the road to tell someone else. Her trembles get the trembles. Anyone who has ever counted sleeps until a holiday will know exactly how that feels.

One practical note. Those kittens Daisy promises you in the first line take a good while to actually turn up, because the packing and the waiting come first and they get plenty of room. That is part of the fun, but if your reader was hoping for kittens on page two they will need a bit of patience.

What to read next

If the money bit is what they enjoy most, Daisy and the Trouble with Piggy Banks is in the library too. Her piggy bank has been empty since she was one, and her best friend has just turned up with the most amazing scooter Daisy has ever seen.