Cats in chaos by Peter Bently. Illus. by John Bond

When Catsby’s Great Circus comes to town, all the cats wait for dark before skipping along to the local school where the circus is to perform that night. Marmaduke Catsby welcomes one and all to watch Whiskers O’Farrell being shot from the barrel, and see Kitty Kadabra taking sausages from her hat, or Daisy Dog Tamer putting her head in the mouth of an enormous dog. Each act that comes to the stage will evoke lots of fun and laughter as the cats do the most amazing things in their circus. Lots of humour is to be gained from the names of the acts and readers will enjoy predicting the rhyming word for each verse.

Readers will see the antics of their cats reflected in the mayhem of the cats as they try different acts in the circus. Bond has created a wonderful kaleidoscope of cat behaviours for readers to look at, all done in bright vivid colours. The different placement of text on each page adds another layer of interest and intrigue, and the detail on each page will keep eager eyes glued to the pages.

I loved Evel Katnevel and her motorbike going through the flaming hoop, and the Siamese trio of cats of course, doing the trapeze, catching the mackerel pie thrown up by the juggling clown. Readers will laugh out loud at the antics shown by each cat in the circus and when Evel’s motorbike crashes into the fish truck, chaos follows as fish are scattered far and wide and all cats, the circus acts and the audience purr with delight at their free meal.

Chaos follows and not before long, all cats are sleeping soundly with full bellies.

Themes: Circus, Cats.

Fran Knight