Title | The Cat that Barked |
Publication Type | Book |
Year of Publication | 1998 |
Authors | Wilson, Budge, and Terry Roscoe |
Publisher | Pottersfield Press |
City | Lawrencetown Beach, N.S |
ISBN Number | 1895900174 |
Descriptors | Cats; Chapter Book; English Language; Families; Halifax; Illustrated; Moving; Nova Scotia; Pets; School; Travel |
Abstract | In this illustrated chapter book, Stephanie's parents give her a cat to help her adjust to her new home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The first day of school is frightening to Stephanie, but she is able to impress her classmates by telling them that her cat, Fido, barks. The other children doubt her, and so Stephanie must prove to them that she is telling the truth. The text includes descriptions of Maritime locations as Stephanie and her family travel across the country and some of the black and white pencil illustrations portray Halifax landmarks. Author Budge Wilson and illustrator Terry Roscoe are from Nova Scotia, the province in which this book was published. The book is written in third person, past tense. |
Jurisdiction | Nova Scotia |
Age Range | 7-9 |

"On the following day, Stephanie had to go to her new school. All the other kids had started at the beginning of September. She'd be the only new one. She found it hard to get out of bed that morning.
'Just imagine!' Stephanie said to Fido later, as she ate her cornflakes and a boiled egg. 'A whole building full of kids. And I don't know even one of them. I wish I was a cat. Then I'd get to stay home in our new backyard. With you.'
She had to admit that the yard was pretty wonderful, with a row of huge yellow dahlias, a birdbath with a rubber frog in the middle, and a big swing set. Fido sat down right in the middle of the lawn and looked happy. The backyard was nicer than the old one, and he wasn't so hot under all the fur" (20-21).