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Have you or your child read The Cat and the King by Nick Sharratt? Post your feedback on the book by 25 October for a chance to win £100 Love2Shop voucher!

35 replies

SorchaMumsnet · 05/09/2016 15:10

The Cat and the King is award-winning Nick Sharratt's debut novel. We're giving away 50 copies so head to the giveaway page to apply for yours!

It tells the story of a king who has to live in the real world after an unfortunate incident involving a dragon and his castle. With help from his best friend, a very clever cat, he learns to negotiate his way through supermarkets, bargain hunts and bus queues. But is that the last they've seen of that pesky dragon?

We ask all winners to share their thoughts (and their children's thoughts) about the book on this discussion thread. However, you don't have to win a free copy to take part in the discussion - anyone who has read The Cat and the King can post their feedback here (and you can buy the book now).

Everyone who posts on this thread before 25 October will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 Love2shop voucher.

This giveaway is sponsored by Scholastic

Have you or your child read The Cat and the King by Nick Sharratt? Post your feedback on the book by 25 October for a chance to win £100 Love2Shop voucher!
OP posts:
ScarlettDarling · 05/09/2016 18:09

We've always loved Nick Sharrat's illustrations...really excited to read his debut novel!

scarcelyodd · 01/10/2016 07:42

We received our free copy yesterday and six-year old DD has just finished reading it! She loved it and the illustrations were as good as you'd expect.

tworonnies1957 · 01/10/2016 12:39

many thanks for the free copy looking forward to reading it with the kids

shadydelta · 01/10/2016 18:04

Here is my 9 year old daughters thoughts.
"I really liked this book. It was really detailed. It was about a king and a cat who had to move house because of a dragon. It was very funny and i loved the pictures. I liked the servants the best because they were so funny. I would like to read another story about the same characters and think the book had just the right amount of chapters in it. I would buy it with my pocket money. I couldnt put it down until i finished it all!" Kaylan.

elizimmy · 01/10/2016 23:11

We received our copy yesterday. DD, 9, is currently reading it then I will be reading it to my youngest DD (a big Nick Sharratt fan). Will pop back again with our thoughts. First impressions were good, an eye catching and interesting book with Dr Seuss style black, white and red illustrations.

redalertalpha · 02/10/2016 09:03

Book arrived on Friday and my 9 year old read it in an hour, he loved it, said it was a very funny great story!

Toberich · 03/10/2016 20:37

Thank you so much for my free copy ! My daughter is delighted with it, loved the story & the pictures. Really love the gold cover ! Some nicely challenging words for a young 7yo as well. I would definitely recommend this book for a lovely present 🙂👍🏻

countingdown · 04/10/2016 11:46

Thank you so much for sending me a copy of this book. My children are 8 and 6 and both absolutely loved it. The text is simple enough that they would manage to read it independently, but we enjoyed reading it together. Lovely story and fab illustrations. The book itself looks great with its Royal looking cover. My children particularly enjoyed looking closely at the pictures to spot the servants as they popped up in various places! A great book, thanks again.

searchingforcalm · 04/10/2016 12:20

Thank you mumsnet for our copy. We are big fans of Nick Sharratt in this house and were very excited about his debut novel, particularly my 9 year-old daughter who is crazy about cats. She pounced on the book as soon as it arrived and read it from cover to cover straightaway. She said it was really, really, good and really funny. I look forward to reading it to my 4 year old although my daughter says he might not get some of the jokes. I'll try and come back with more comments once I've done so.

BearAusten · 04/10/2016 18:04

My six year old enjoyed this book. It is good book for the crossover from picture to chapter books. The illustrations are bold, funny and plentiful, whilst the chapters are not too long. It even has a dragon in it. Overall, a great book, where both King, and hopefully, young reader learn a little more about friendship. (We already had this on pre-order even before the giveaway. We didn't regret it.)

Starfish78 · 05/10/2016 09:54

Thank you for our copy. My 7 year old loved this book. She enjoyed reading it to me, and loved the story. We both thought it was a great book!

busymummy0411 · 06/10/2016 14:36

My 5 year old enjoyed this very much. We read the first few chapters together then she finished the rest independently. Seemed the perfect read for around 5-9 years, interesting and engaging but short chapters and plenty of illustrations. My DD particularly liked it as the story is a little unusual and she said it was very funny. We would definitely buy future novels from the author.

skippink · 07/10/2016 15:54

My 6 year old daughter loved this book,she had read it in two days.
She liked all the illustrations and it was nice to have a recipe at the end of the book. Lovely book and such a high standard and quality. Thanks for sending us the book.

cityrat79 · 07/10/2016 20:57

I am reading this nightly to my 4 year old.

Each chapter is the perfect length for a bedtime read (two chapters if I'm feeling generous).

It stretches her vocabulary nicely with repeated words like "forlorn" and we can talk about what they mean.

She loves the parts where the king recognises his old staff and likes flipping back to find them.

I would have liked to have seen at least one of the main characters to be female. Too many books where the narrative protagonists are exclusively male.

babyowl · 08/10/2016 16:43

We always look forward to Nick Sharratt's illustrations and really enjoyed this book.

It's a great one for children who are moving on from picture books & starting to read longer stories/chapter books. The characters are lovely (especially the cat) and we would love to read more about them.

It was great to include a recipe for royal shortbread at the end, though perhaps it would be even better if the recipe could be on a detachable card to use in the kitchen.

rennie1811 · 09/10/2016 21:49

My 9yo daughter read this. She loved the way the book was set out and especially the illustrations. She really enjoyed the jokes and found the servants very funny. There is a recipe at the back of the book which my daughter is already asking to make. I had a read through as well and thought that my 5yo would love the story so am about to start to read to her as her bedtime story over a few nights. Great book that is lots of fun to read!

FrankNfurter · 11/10/2016 14:29

We got our book about a week ago and my eight-year-old daughter was really pleased to get it as she loves Nick Sharratt's books and his illustrations. I asked her what she thought and she said: "I really enjoyed it, it was a very funny story and the pictures were brilliant. There's a king who's good at king-y stuff like being important with all his servants, but then his castle burns down thanks to an Unfortunate Incident with a dragon and he has to find a new normal life with his best friend the clever cat. My favourite characters were the cat and the next door neighbour and I liked the recipe at the back."

CordeliaScott · 11/10/2016 18:24

Thank you mumsnet for this book. My 7 year old niece loved it and is already badgering my brother to help her make the shortbread at the back.

princessgray · 12/10/2016 17:10

I always love Nick Sharratt's picture books but he has surpassed himself with this novel. It's completely delightful and I love the inclusion of the shortbread recipe.

shelaghh · 13/10/2016 20:11

Nick Sharratt's new book tells the story of a very clever cat and a" not so" clever king. They must find another home as their castle has been burned down by a dragon. They move to a town close and the cat introduces the king to domesticity. " BEWARE THE RETURN OF THE DRAGON"

starlight36 · 16/10/2016 22:24

My 5 3/4 year old daughter has really enjoyed this book. We enjoyed it together with DD able to read some of it herself and she is now very proud that she can actually read bits of a proper chapter book. The plot is fun and she liked the relationship between the cat and the King.

I expected there to be brilliant illustrations in a Nick Sharratt book but didn't expect there to be as many pictures. It really helps to bridge the gap between picture books and more traditional text-only chapter books. The illustrations were a big hit with my daughter and she also loved the glittery gold cover. I'm being nagged to make the shortbread recipe soon and she has been busy trying out the Royal jokes.

We'll definitely look out for any future books - perhaps further adventures of the Cat and the King?

tworonnies1957 · 18/10/2016 00:20

have never known the kids to talk about a book as much as they have about the cat and the king, the story seemed to have stuck in there minds been talking about it over the breakfast table and they can tell me almost word for word what happened the night before as I get ready to read it with them at bedtime it full of beautiful pictures too which brings the book to life and of course we had to make the shortbread a few times

cornflakegirl · 18/10/2016 10:56

DS (7) really enjoyed this book. The story was very funny, and the pictures were lovely. He was also a big fan of the recipe at the end.

I also enjoyed reading the book with him, but not quite as much as I wanted to. There were lots of clever bits, with You Choose style lists of things they bought etc, but I felt it was a bit lacking on the characters. A very beautiful book, but I'm not sure it's a future classic.

Leahs1988 · 19/10/2016 17:10

Really enjoyed reading this book with my DD. The illustrations are great as they are with all nick sharratt books! It was a really engaging and funny story brilliant for bed time.

CopperPan · 21/10/2016 20:19

DS 7 enjoyed reading this book, the pictures were fantastic and kept him giggling. The chapters are quite short so a great way to break up the story for bedtimes.