Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape - Dermot O'Leary

Published by Hodder Children's Books/Hodder and Stoughton: London, 2017.
Book 1 in the 'Toto the Ninja Cat' series. Followed by 'Toto the Ninja Cat and the Incredible Cheese Heist.'

If the title didn't clue you in on it, this is a strange book. 

I like a lot of strange books, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Unfortunately, in the case of Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape, it feels like author Dermot O'Leary is trying just a little to hard to be weird. For example, Toto is introduced as a normal cat, who then says that she is blind, and whose brother (Silver) then says 'but you're a ninja, so it doesn't matter.'

Why make her blind at all, if (as the plot shows) it doesn't matter at all that she is? She can still 'see' most of the time, and her ninja skills overcome anything that would potentially be an obstacle for a blind cat anyway!

It might be simply because Toto is apparently based on O'Leary's own rescue cat, who was indeed blind, but in terms of a book character, it just feels like one too-many quirks for our heroine.

The plot is okay. There are a few laughs and a few twists, but nothing that really 'gripped' either of us. 

Maybe a book that kids would like, but I can't imagine it being a favourite of anyone.

I could be proved wrong.

Completed with Elise, 9 December 2025.



(Elise Books)

Previous Book ~ Next Book

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Image
Published by Tom Doherty Associates Books/TOR Fantasy: New York, 2014. Book 2 in 'The Stormlight Archives' series. Preceded by ' The Way of Kings .' Followed by (spin-off) ' Edgedancer ' and (main series) ' Oathbringer. ' Well, I finally read the second Stormlight book, this one even longer than the last  at a whopping 1080 pages, and once again found myself enjoying Sanderson's world immensely. The plot does take longer than strictly necessary in places - particularly in the storyline following Shallan Davar as she journeys towards the Shattered Plains - but overall is still a page-turner. By the middle of Words of Radiance our three main characters (Kaladin, Shallan and Adolin) are finally in the same location, something that was never achieved in the first book. In keeping them apart for so long, Sanderson is able to give his readers a real understanding of what makes each character tick, and this becomes quite interesting as when these character...
Read more

Martin Luther - Eric Metaxas

Image
Published by Penguin Audio, 2017. Audiobook narrated by the author. I knew next to nothing about Martin Luther before beginning this book, only that he was famous for starting the Reformation and did so by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a church. There is a lot more to him than that! The thing that struck me most, while listening to this book, was how little Martin Luther intended to be controversial; as Metaxas argues, Luther wrote the 95 Theses in Latin (the scholarly language) because he intended to have a scholarly debate, not a revolution. It was only when his theses were translated into German and distributed by others that he was forced to defend them in public, thus going further than he intended. As things escalated, and Luther made more and more controversial statements (controversial to the ears of the established church of the day), there came a point where Luther gained a real peace with what was happening, because it was 'obvious that God was in it.' If that...
Read more

The One Year Worship the King Devotional - Chris Tiegreen

Image
Published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Carol Stream, Illinois, 2008. For my birthday last year I was given this devotional, by an author I had never heard of, and started reading it sometime later in September. I have quite a hit-and-miss record with devotionals; they are often a bit glib or cliche for me and I struggle to stick with them. This devotional, however, quickly appealed to me and although I'm not sure exactly what day I started reading it last year, I know I have now read every entry in it. What I like about this devotional is that it is quite ready to dig into deeper theology, occasionally even into commentary! An example of a good challenge (from only the second day of the year!): "Many believers get caught up in getting the most out of their salvation. Few move on to giving the most out of their salvation. But those who do will realize one of the many paradoxes of the Kingdom: Giving it all results in getting it all. A heart poured out in praise results in...
Read more