Cat School: Odd Cat Out!
Rose Robbins
Scallywag Press

This is the first in a new graphic novel series featuring kittens Tangle and Eno, and their new neurodivergent friend Pelly.

It’s the day all three start Cat School and whereas Tangle and Eno though a little anxious at the outset quickly overcome their nerves, Pelly, who arrives late, is troubled by many things, one being the scent-vents that emit smells signalling lesson and break times. After lunch she feels the need to find a quiet place and goes off alone into the garden and there she discovers something she really likes – pinecones. This place, Pelly decides can become her ‘private pinecone hideaway.’

Come the end of the first day she tells an empathetic Granmog who has come to meet her that she feels “like there’s some kind of secret rule book everyone knows about except me!” Granmog however, believes she can learn to enjoy school.

Pelly decides that the only way she can enjoy school is to copy the other pupils but finds that very tiring; the alternative – to act like her real self – worries her even more. Then Tangle and Eno resolve to try and help her.

Their first plan fails leaving Pelly so distressed she runs home. Can Tangle and Eno learn to understand her and most important, can Pelly keep going long enough to understand her would-be friends and move towards becoming a confident cat?

Woven into the main story are a number of fun extras such as a map of Cat School, Cat School basics and a list of the school rules, a spread about the game of ‘Paw Ball’, Pelly’s Herbarium and more.

Rose’s graphic novel debut draws on her own experience of growing up as a neurodivergent person and is the first in a trilogy. With its gentle humour and warmth this book is definitely one to add to foundation stage class/KS1 collections and family bookshelves, especially those where there’s a child who might be in a similar position to Pelly.