Vivian French’s Morris and the Cat Flap is a funny animal story for 6 year olds about a kitten who’s quite sure the new flap in the back door is out to get him.<\/p>\n
Morris is ginger and white and very fat (the story’s words, not mine!). One morning there’s something new in the kitchen door. Rose bounces through it. Tom skips through it. Even Mother Cat slides through it beautifully.<\/p>\n
Morris sits in the middle of the kitchen floor with his eyes shut, waiting for the SNAP.<\/p>\n
He’s got an excuse for everything. He’s busy. He’s cleaning his whiskers. The window’s shut. But really he’s frightened. What if he’s too big and gets stuck halfway? What if it snaps shut on his beautiful tail?<\/p>\n
Fair warning, there’s a little accident by the door in the night (only a very little one, says Morris). Rose calls him a big baby and Tom teases him about being a fatty. It’s all very kindly done, but a sensitive reader might want a cuddle at that point.<\/p>\n
This is a lovely one for a new reader. The sentences are short and there are lots of repeated bits to hang on to. SNAP keeps coming back, and so do the big shouty CAPITALS, which are brilliant fun to read out loud.<\/p>\n
Morris is great company because he’s so obviously pretending. Who hasn’t told someone they were “just busy” when really they were scared stiff?<\/p>\n
There’s a garden adventure too, with a beetle that glares at him and a fence that turns out to be the wrong sort of fence. And then he smells fish.<\/p>\n
The whole thing is four short chapters, so it’s easy to finish in one go.<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a reader who’s nervous about something new (a new classroom, the swimming pool, the big slide at the park), Morris will probably feel very familiar. It’s gentle proof that the scary thing is usually smaller than it looks.<\/p>\n
For another little animal who’s sure they know best, try Hedgehogs Don’t Eat Hamburgers, also by Vivian French. Hector the hedgehog sets off to find a hamburger for his tea, picking up three friends and one very hungry fox along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vivian French’s Morris and the Cat Flap is a funny animal story for 6 year olds about a kitten who’s quite sure the new flap in the back door is out to get him. Morris is ginger and white and very fat (the story’s words, not mine!). One morning there’s something new in the kitchen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13292,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7618,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Hedgehogs Don't Eat Hamburgers","lr_seo_hook":"A kitten convinced the new cat flap will snap shut on his beautiful tail."},"book_tag":[18],"age_group":[31],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[1015],"class_list":["post-8114","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-animal-books","age_group-books-for-6-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-vivian-french"],"yoast_title":"Morris and the Cat Flap by Vivian French | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A kitten convinced the new cat flap will snap shut on his beautiful tail. For ages 6+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n