The Nine Lives of Furry Purry Beancat

This amusing pair are the first two books in an inventive series about Furry Beancat by Philip Ardagh and Rob Biddulph.

I loved the idea behind this little time travelling puss cat. Being a cat lover myself I often wonder what my little cat has seen, especially with the added ‘nine lives’ label as well. So this series is based on that very premise - what would happen if cats really did have nine lives? Furry Purry Bean Cat loves to take cat naps but sometimes, when she curls up to have a lovely sleep she wakes up to find herself in a different place and different time altogether.

I think the idea is a clever one if you like cats or not and will certainly appeal to primary school if they like some adventures including pirate swashbuckling. The first adventure takes place on a pirate ship (hence the swashbuckling) when Furry Purry Beancat finds herself at sea. I don’t think cats generally like water but she doesn’t seem to mind too much as she quickly has to find a way to save the day in the middle of a battle between pirates. Luckily she has the help of a family of rats who are run by a very over protective rat mummy.

In the next adventure she wakes up to find herself in a railway station where a little boy has just been unfairly accused of pickpocketing. One of Furry Purry Beancat’s super skills is that she quickly has to remember who her ‘owners’ are in each adventure and where she needs to sleep and patrol. Here she lives at the station and, with the help of the station master’s grand-daughter and a cock-a-too she manages to put a ‘wrong’ ‘right’ and solves a spy mystery too!

The Furry Purry Bean cat adventures are lovely chapter books with plenty of action, history and funny characters to entertain. The stories are have got enough action to make them page turners and they are packed with funny jokes too.

Rob Biddulph’s illustrations really help the fun. The animal drawings are really funny especially the rat family on board the pirate ship. I’m looking forward to reading where Furry Bean Cat ends up next.