Kylo Kitty Moves to the City product reviews

Miss Four was totally sold on the illustrations in this book. They are bold, colourful, and quirky, and appealed to her right from the title page with its close-up of a terrified kitty. As the story unfolded, Miss Four felt even more sympathetic to poor Kylo because she too is rationalising a pending house move, and his story encouraged her to look on the positive side. In between sessions, she has picked up the book on several occasions just to look at the pictures and remind herself of the story.

Kylo's quest to find friends in his new city leads him into all sorts of adventures. On his travels he meets Ant Anthony and Kiwi Karl, but they don't want to play with him. Anthony is too small and might get squashed, while Karl is far too busy. Other small creatures appear too in the background, bur Kylo does not get to speak to them at all. But at last he meets up with someone like himself, a white cat called Spooky. Finally, Kylo has found someone that he can relate to, and who will be his friend. Spooky explains that he will walk back with him to his new home as he appears to be lost, and then assures him that now they are friends they can meet every day. Of course, Kylo's family is relieved to see him safe back home, and Kylo settles down to sleep happy that he has made a new friend who will explore the city with him.

While Miss Four loved the illustrations and related to the story's friendship theme, she found the text difficult in some places. On the second reading, we simplified the wording and stopped after each page to unpack the pictures. This worked well for her; she is a perceptive child and the thought of moving, while exciting, still presents its own challenges. Change is always an issue for a small child; it is often hard for little ones to put things into words so a simply presented story can be a great help in a transition.

I need to mention the detail in the pictures. The story is set over the course of one day, so some of the action takes place after dark. Kylo is a black cat so portraying him could have been a problem - but Kalinichenko's illustrations use colour to effect so that the background is always visible with Kylo outlined against it. His new friend Spooky, of course, is white so he is easy to spot. Colour contrast in the pictures in children's books is so important; unless the content is clear and easy to see, pre-schoolers would quickly lose interest. And this is even more important when they cannot yet read the text for themselves so have to rely on making sense of a story through the pictures alone.