Sensitive handling of death, loss, deafness

Our beloved Birman Eddie disappeared for 8 days, causing great emotional upheaval in our house. The boys (aged 6 & 8) and I were extremely upset. Luckily he "magically" reappeared.

This book is theoretically about a stray cat called "Ka", that appears and re-appears much to the distress of Toffa (aged 10) who spends much of the book searching for her. For anyone who has lost a cat, this book will resonate deeply. The descriptions of an empty, cold house and longing to spend every second of the day searching, really reflected what the family went through.

Of course there is more to it than that. Toffa's mother has recently died, and this gets mixed up with the loss of the cat. His father gets increasingly distrustful of Toffa's exploits, and then there is a new friendship with a deaf girl called Ellie. Ellie eventually decides to get cochlear implants to help her hear and (as my 6 yr old has a deaf child in his class) it was really interesting to hear how this friendship plays out.

It's not the easiest of listens, as it covers some really big emotional topics. It is however extremely exciting and thought provoking. This combined with the mention of animal sacrifice in Ancient Egypt (SPOILER ALERT Ka is rescued at the last minute, so no actual sacrifice but lots of suggestive bits for the nervously inclined) makes me suggest this is suitable for age 7 and over. Having said that, whilst some of the adult themes are missing my 6 yr old, he did ask our cat Eddie - when he came home late - if he had been out time traveling to the Temple of Bastet. Eddie just purred and said nothing.

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