Miss Penny Dreadful & the Midnight Kittens by Allison Rushby. Illus. by Bronte Rose Marando

Nabbed again for drawing images of her teachers in her notebook, Penny is summoned to the Head Mistress’s office where she is met by her Aunt Harriet an adventuress and author, and her companions, a squirrel monkey called Jones and a strange spider-limbed man called Mr Crowley. They face the dreaded Miss Pugh and Harriet simply asks Penny if she likes the school. The decisive answer causes Harriet to extract Penny from the terrible school, taking her on the road to adventure. The first of these involves a group of kittens who come to life at midnight in Mr Toddington’s Museum, a collection of the strange and macabre. Penny and Harriet wait at midnight to catch a glimpse of the supposed bewitched kittens after seeing them during the day, a group of neatly arranged stuffed animals. But at midnight they indeed do come alive, cavorting in their display case, playing with each other. But Penny recalls her teacher’s mantra, use your logic, do not believe everything you see. And in looking more closely she helps to uncover a fraud.

Finding a sobbing girl in the stables early that morning, she spies the live kittens, about to be taken by a taxidermist because they have grown too big to be in the display. While Aunt Harriet is busy writing her next instalment, Penny takes charge, wanting to expose the fraud and save the girl from further sadness. She takes Lucy to see Lord Linkford who she met yesterday explaining loudly about the beauty of the stuffed animal museum and they strike a deal. The deal satisfies them all, except perhaps Mr Crawley and his associates.

A marvellous adventure story, steeped in the curious, will appeal to a wide audience, wanting sharp characterisation and an involved, winning, well told plot. And the first in a series adds to the thrill.

Themes: Orphans, Adventure, Fraud, Taxidermy.

Fran Knight