The Outlaw Varjak Paw

S. F. Said's The Outlaw Varjak Paw is a snowy cat adventure for 8 year olds about a small silver-blue cat who's suddenly the most wanted animal in the city.

What happens

Varjak grew up as a pet indoors and always dreamed of living wild. Now he does, with his friends Holly and Tam and a huge soft-hearted dog called Cludge. But it's winter, the mice have vanished and Sally Bones's gang has made a new law. If you're not in the gang, you don't get to hunt.

When a gang cat snatches Varjak's hard-won mouse and then slashes Cludge's nose, Varjak fights back. He uses the Way, the secret warrior skills he learned in his dreams from his ancestor Jalal. And he wins. Then he can't stop hitting. By the next night he's been declared an outlaw.

This isn't a simple story about a cat who's great at fighting, though. Varjak is scared of his own power. He lost control with the bully and it frightened him more than the fight did. So the question running through it is whether being strong is the same as being brave. What would you do if the thing that made you special also made you dangerous?

The street cats are a joy. Holly is spiky and quick, Tam is permanently hungry (and not quite as brave as she'd like to be) and Cludge talks about himself in the third person. "Cludge not scared!" Your reader will be rooting for all of them.

Varjak has already had one big adventure before this starts. The harbour cats know him as the one who solved the Vanishings. You pick up what you need as you go.

A heads-up for more sensitive readers. The fights are short but there's blood on the snow. The gang also drags a little kitten away to be punished and threatens to hunt Varjak down dead or alive. It's tense rather than gory, but it's a darker kind of animal story.

If you've got a reader who loves Warriors-style cat adventures, or anyone who likes a hero who's still working out who he is, this is a great pick.

What to read next

If they want more from the same author, try S. F. Said's Phoenix. Lucky wakes up to find his bedsheet burned right through, and a strange new power is rising in him that he doesn't understand either.