The Diary of a Killer Cat (The Killer Cat Series Book 1)

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There are a number of books in the ‘Killer Cat’ series. Can you write a new story involving the character? Find all of the words that the author uses to describe how something is said (e.g. asked, muttered, cried). Make a poster to teach other children about good vocabulary to use in their writing. Absolutely hilarious, perfect as a family read-aloud. The characters are expertly drawn, and Tuffy's protestations about how it wasn't his fault are just brilliant. Highly recommended. The book can be used to inspire creative writing. As it is from the perspective of a cat (in first person), children could use this technique to practice writing from different points of view. From the point of view of their own pet to the point of view of Ellie in the book there are a range of different perspectives that can be explored.

The chapters are named after each day of the week. Could you write a story where a different event / paragraph / chapter takes place on a new day? Write a diary entry from the point of view of your own (or a friend’s) pet. How does it feel about living with the family? What does it like? What does it dislike?

Bill's New Frock

Another writing task that could be initiated in using this book, could be one that involves writing in a different form. Called a diary, this book could be used to trigger an activity that involves writing in the form of a diary. Questions such as: How do you structure a diary? How would you structure yours? Using dates, times? Would you name your diary, and write to them?: are all questions can be posed in the lesson to help children think about the different forms a diary can take in itself. Poor Ellie is horrified when Tuffy drags a dead bird into the house. Then a mouse. But Tuffy can't understand what all the fuss is about. This is a humorous book about a cat that kills yet cannot understand why his family are upset with this. He is a ‘cheeky’ kind of character always trying to justify his actions, which the children would like. The illustrations are funny which would be useful in class to keep children engaged. It also has as great sense of sarcasm about it, again useful when introducing the notion of sarcasm as it gives great examples. This book is brilliantly written and had me laughing throughout. Anne Fine manages to give Tuffy a brilliantly cheeky personality, which children and adults alike will fall in love with. It is the first story in a series of four, all of which are as good as this debut. Highly recommended for children, parents and teachers.

If you like this book, here are some other books you might enjoy - including the further adventures of Tuffy the Killer Cat.

The punctuation, repetition and use of various lengths of sentences enable the book to be an easy yet interesting read, and therefore can be used to help children develop their writing skills. Lessons involving an examination of the writing can be followed up with a lesson in which the children are asked to write an account from the point of view of their own pet involving repetition, exclamation marks, speech marks and the use of both long and short sentences. Anne has written more than sixty books for children and young people. Amongst numerous other awards, she is twice winner of both the Carnegie Medal, Britain's most prestigious children's book award, and the Whitbread Award. Twice chosen as Children's Author of the Year in the British Book Awards, Anne Fine was also the first novelist to be honoured as Children's Laureate in the United Kingdom. In 2003, Anne became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Her work has been translated into forty five languages.