Looking to buy a bike, then see if we've ridden it first Need new kit? Check out our reviews before opening your wallet

MOTOBKE.CO.UK
All about owning and riding modern motorbikes!

 Home Bikes Kit Features News and Views Bookshop Be a Writer!/About Us

A Cat Called Ian, by Wolfren Riverstick - Bob Pickett asks who would call a cat Ian? And what does this have to do with biking?

Click here for more info or to order this book When Thomas Benjamin Durrow (a particularly badly behaved and irritating ten year old boy) elected to climb the old oak tree on the top of Sunrise Hill, little did he realise that it was to lead to catastrophe.

Falling from the tree after being attacked by squirrels, he awoke to find that not only had he become a cat (an animal he particularly hated), but a tortoiseshell at that (obviously, the breed he hated most). If things hadn't already become bad enough, he was hauled into the court of Catland and told that he only had a short time to mend his ways or he would remain a cat forever.

But when you are a ten year old cat… er I mean boy, doing as you are told doesn't come easy…

… from here on, Ian (the name given to the cat by the Head of Catland) runs headlong into a series of misadventures, all caused by his refusal to see what he is being taught. Like all cats, he has nine lives; which he starts losing at an alarming rate until he has just the one left. Lose that one and he becomes a Permanent Cat and can never become a boy again.

Clearly, this idiot needs help to prevent him from messing up his last life - and it comes in the form of his own guardian angel; a beautiful Birman cat called Sorcha. Just one problem; Ian the tortoiseshell seems as hell bent on ignoring her as he did everyone else.

So can Sorcha get Ian to mend his ways? Does Ian become human again? Will this book find a happy ending, or will it all end in cataclysm? Can I please stop trying to include as many words with "cat" in them in this review? And what has this to do with biking (after all, Motobke.co.uk is a site focussed on motorbikes and biking)?

The answer to the above? Well I'm not going to tell you how the book ends, but I will explain what this review is doing here. Wolfren Riverstick (obviously a pseudonym) is a fellow biker and this is his first book. And that alone, to me, means we should lend him a little support and get the word out there about his efforts.

And it is a charming little tale. From talking to the author, he advises that the book's target audience is 9 to 12 year olds. Personally, I'd say younger readers would like it (although they may need some help from mum and dad with the larger words). That said, this rather older than 12 year old passed a few relaxing hours reading the story and I am led to believe that I am not the only adult that has done.

Verdict: If you have a child with an active imagination who sort of falls into the rough age group I mentioned above, give "A Cat Called Ian" a go. OK, it isn't Harry Potter (thankfully - see my spoof of J.K. Rowling elsewhere on this site), but it will charm them for a time and if they're just starting to read themselves, could well be a nice starter book to get them into good habits and encourage them to read more.

Interested? Then click here for more info or to order this book or for more information on Wolfren Riverstick and the chance to get the book direct... and maybe even autographed? click here to go to the author's website

Read a good book that everyone else should read? Want to write a review? Then click here to find out how



Home Bikes Kit Features News and Views Bookshop Be a Writer!/About Us