It’s 7pm and time for Alice Bee to go to bed. Her parents call “Goodnight!” and her cat Jiffy purrs his own message. It’ll be time soon for him to get up.

And so he does, ‘singing’ his first song of the night, all about his mouse toy. He’s loud, forgetting Alice has gone to bed and Mum and Dad ssshhh him.

He ‘sings’ another song and then another as Mum and Dad are going to bed. They shake their heads.

“You’re being very naughty.”

But Jiffy is only just warming up, regardless of who is in bed or not. He ‘sings’ at midnight and all through the wee morning hours.

B the time the sun comes up he has enjoyed his night ‘singing’ and adventures and is ready for sleep. So are his family after getting hardly any sleep during the night. But they have to get up!

Jiffy is back! This time he is sharing all his ‘songs’ about his favourite things and memories around his home. The only problem is, it’s during the night from 8pm until 7am in the morning.

What he gets up to in between each song, made me burst out laughing.

With a bright, simple illustration style and clever lyrics to Jiffy’s Greatest Hits, this picture book is going to entertain many a small child and cat owner too.

Look for the clock in each room as Jiffy begins to sing, and read the (analogue) time – A great way of introducing this skill to children.

The author has her own cat named Jiffy who stars in her social media from time to time. His image of a white puss with one blue eye and one yellow, is mirrored in the Jiffy picture book character.

As a long time cat owner, I loved the cat behaviour in this funny, bright picture book by an Award winning New Zealand author.

Author – Catherine Chidgey

Illustrator – Astrid Matijasevich

Picture Book

(2022,Bateman Books, NZ, New Zealand, Aotearoa, Cat, Animals, Feline behaviour, Humour, Funny, Family, Analogue time, Telling the time)