Shadow Guardians – Seer

Matthew Block's Shadow Guardians - Seer is a cat fantasy for 10 year olds about a lazy, slightly tubby house cat who can see monsters nobody else can.

What happens

Arlo is a black and white cat with a bent tail. He loves a warm windowsill and his girl, Michelle, and not much else. When the family packs everything into boxes, he's convinced they're about to get rid of him. They're actually moving to a house with a garden.

On his second evening there he spots something in the drive. It's a cloud of black mist that pulls itself into a shape, part human and part animal, with bulging eyes. A car drives straight through it. Then it notices Arlo watching, and sinks into the ground.

Your reader gets to see the other side too. Some chapters follow Berzod, one of the creatures, back to a huge cavern deep underground. His people are getting ready for something they call the harvest, which only happens once every ten years. It's due in four days. And they'd been told there were no cats left round here who could see them.

Meanwhile Arlo is trying to prove himself to Eugene, a scruffy wild tomcat who calls him a loser for wearing a harness on walks. So he works out how to jump up and hit the garage door button (it takes a couple of goes) and heads off on his own.

It's very funny about being a cat. Arlo is proud and a bit of a scaredy-cat at once. He's offended when the humans laugh at the way he high-steps through long grass. And the local lady who feeds dozens of strays nicknames him Plumpie, which he takes very badly!

There's a nice moment when Lucy, a sleek black cat, tells Arlo off for calling that lady by the rude name the other cats use. It's the first hint that there's much more to Lucy than she's saying.

This one leans a bit darker than a cosy cat story. The creatures are genuinely creepy. Arlo has a nightmare about being surrounded and clawed. And the underground chapters mention pens being built for the harvest, which is a chilling detail even though the opening doesn't say what they're for.

If you've got a reader who loves animals with a secret world, it's a great pick. They'll probably be desperate to know who the Shadow Guardians are.

What to read next

For another house cat who gets laughed at by a wild one, try Into the Wild. Rusty dreams of hunting in the woods, and the first cat he meets there calls him a kittypet.