Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat review
When Hamish, the lighthouse keeper's cat, hears that Mr and Mrs Grinling are going to put him on a diet, he decides to find somewhere else to live. Soon, though, Hamish realises that there's no place like home.
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I have seen these lighthouse keeper books around before many years ago and may have even read a few in my time so knew I wanted to review a classic children's picture book with my 2 year old. I like to mix up his book collection with some new books and some of the good old classics from when I was young and beyond. Master Two is obsessed with cats so I knew the book would be a winner in his eyes with a big greedy cat to point at.
Well the lighthouse cat is very well loved by Mr Grinling the lighthouse keeper and his wife Mrs Grinling he lives a nice life between the lighthouse and home getting very well fed wherever he is. He is a fat cat from all the food and not one in the habit of chasing mice. So when mice find their way into the lighthouse Mr and Mrs Grinling decide to put him on a diet so he will chase the mice. A diet is not something Hamish the lighthouse cat was quite fond of so he off he set thinking well see about that.
Well a very well kept cat like Hamish soon learns there is no place like home once he is scolded, scowled, and ignored. And with a little bit of love he soon returns home chasing the mice out of the lighthouse to the best of his skills and back to eating like a king. He is the lighthouse cat and he is pretty happy with that!!
Quite a nice little message about there being no place like home run through this book which I really loved. My son loves the bouncy rhyming verse books the most and although this was more of a story he still sat completely engaged as the story line is such a good one. It has a bit of repetition with Hamish the cat saying I am the lighthouse cat and we will see about that, which will be the first thing my boy will be able to read along with me when he gets more familiar with the story.
I'd say this is going to be a very popular and loved book in our house as my son has had to have it read to him several times today alone and chose to take it to bed with him tonight to look at the pictures himself in bed. Such a beautiful little story to join our bookshelf
I sat down with the toddler the other night and she wanted me to read a book. I asked Miss 7 if she would like me to read this one with her and her sister. Miss 7 turned up her nose at it. She enjoyed the Lunch story but wasn't a big fan of the Picnic book in this series. So she walked out and left me to read this to her sister instead.
I was amazed that as I was reading this book, my toddler sat in my lap snuggled in to me. She watched each page as I flipped it and pointed to a few things. But oddly, she never once hurried the book along or took over. She was very keen to hear every word and get the whole story out of me, which is unusual.
The other amazing thing was, that Miss 7 crept her way into the room, and hid beside the bed listening to the book as well. She stayed for most of it and then slowly crept out of the room when I was finished. So the book was clearly very engaging for both of them, and mainly in the words. Though the pictures were very nice too and I thought made the story; especially the maps which showed Hamish's trip.
I have been asked to read it a couple more time since then, so I know we have another winner for this series in my house. I found that the story followed a good pattern and made sense. There was no moment when I felt like the story wasn't going anywhere or felt forced. So it had all those key elements that I look for, and it is engaging for the kids too.
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