Museum Kittens 01 – The Midnight Visitor

Holly Webb's The Midnight Visitor is the first Museum Kittens story, for 6 year olds, about a scrawny black kitten who turns up at a grand old museum in the middle of a storm.

What happens

Deep in the museum cellars lives a whole family of cats. Their job is to keep the rats and mice away from the treasures. Tasha is a scruffy tabby kitten who loves exploring and making up stories about the things in the galleries. Her sister Bianca is white, spotless and VERY pleased with herself. Her brother Boris is big, ginger and always hungry.

One stormy night there's a bang on the cats' door. A skinny old tabby walks in out of the rain, drops a soggy black bundle on the stairs and leaves without a word. The bundle sneezes and sits up.

"I'm Peter," he squeaks.

Grandpa Ivan, the fierce one-eyed old cat in charge, says the museum is a home for any cat in need. So Peter stays. But he doesn't know where he came from, he's never caught a rat and the other cats whisper about him wherever he goes.

This is such a sweet story about feeling like you don't fit in. Peter is small and shy, and when Boris calls him "rat cat" you really feel it. It's Tasha who sees what everyone else is missing. She thinks Peter's mysterious arrival is the most exciting thing that's ever happened (and she's a bit jealous of it).

The museum is great fun to explore with them. The kittens sneak through secret passages and pop up behind a mummy case. Peter hides from visitors inside a suit of Samurai armour. There's a scary stuffed wolf that both Tasha and Peter are secretly afraid of, which becomes their first shared secret.

Then the two of them decide Peter needs to catch a rat to prove he belongs. What could possibly go wrong in a dark museum after closing time? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and the Dinosaur Gallery is involved.

It's gently funny too. Bianca poses for photos with every visitor, and Boris will do almost anything for a stolen sandwich.

If your reader loves animal stories about friendship and belonging, this is a lovely one to start with. The chapters are short enough for bedtime, with a little bit of spooky atmosphere but nothing too scary.

What to read next

For another Holly Webb story about a very small cat and a big new start, try The Smallest Kitten, where twin sisters adopt a tiny kitten after moving house.