Review by Frank Plowright

Cats are mysterious creatures. Just what do they get up to for the hours on end while they disappear? Well, Nedi Okorafor has an answer for that…

Okorafor writes SF and fantasy for adults, but is probably best known for her children’s novels, and The Space Cat is aimed squarely at those readers. The Okorafor family are delighted at acquiring a distinctive young cat, but the cat, Pumpernickel Pickle Periwinkle Chukwu by name or Periwinkle for short, isn’t as keen to acquire them, and it’s a prolonged settling in period. That was in the past, though, and before we’ve seen that we’ve learned the cat sneaks away into its secret lair from which it’ll take a trip into space. However, a bigger adventure awaits when the Okorafor family decide to move to Nigeria.

There’s an episodic feeling to The Space Cat, with Okorafor exaggerating incidents from Periwinkle’s actual arrival in the household and supplying enjoyable speculation about the missing hours. As seen in the photographs in the bonus material, Periwinkle is a very distinctive looking cat, almost a gift to a cartoonist, and Tana Ford makes the most of that in bringing them to life. In Ford’s hands Periwinkle is extremely expressive, a bundle of motion and always confidently superior.

The entire story is told from Periwinkle’s view, and in order to convey this Okorafor has devised eccentric speech patterns. There’s no reason a cat should follow human grammar, or indeed language, but this particular flight of fancy grates from the start, and never becomes endearing. However, such is Ford’s skill in bringing both cat and surroundings to life, much of the story can be absorbed without the narrative captions.

Flights of fancy are par for the course for both author and cat, and combined with the art there’s a constantly changing adventure for young readers to cherish.