Dougal’s Diary by David Greagg

Sigh! A friend lent me this and I have had it too long because … It took me ages to read it because it is so twee it is almost unbearable. I love cats, I really do but I can’t read stories about them (or any other animal apart from human) where the creatures have been anthropomorphised. One point I’d like to make about this novel is that you should never lie to children, even in fiction. A cat can see better at night than humans can and saying they don’t and that they are scared is dishonest. This novel is written for young adults. I have enjoyed novels written for the young adult audience so I am not against reading novels geared towards this age group.  I have read good cat stories, so I am not against reading stories where the cat is the main character. “The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr” by E.T.A. Hoffman is an example of a story where the main character, a cat, has written his autobiography that, unfortunately for him, has been mixed up with a biography of a human leading to hilarious results. If you want to read good animal stories, try Jack London or Farley Mowat. Even the animal tales in the 1001 Nights are good. This one – meh.