Rachel WellsBesprekingen

First of all, I loved the first book in this series, "Alfie the Doorstep Cat" (I gave it 5 stars). I wish I could say the same about this book but I'm afraid it fell short. Perhaps the author was under pressure from the publisher to quickly get out a sequel to a very successful first book.

There are two main problems with this book:

1) In the first book, Alfie adopts himself out to several families, each with problems, some very serious problems. Alfie loves these people and wants to help them. In this book, the main serious problem is something that is happening to a family that Alfie does not know well, nor do any of the people in his life (distance from the reader). It reminds me of the TV series, "Lost" where they promised every week that you would soon discover the secret. People got bored and gave up on it. Same here.

2) Alfie takes on too many human actions in this book. It's one thing to anthropomorphize an animal. It's kind of sweet to imagine that they think like we do. But it's another thing for the cat to take on human actions (eg: picking flowers for a date). This just felt off.

I will continue in the series and hope the next book rises up to the level of the first.½

Corny but what the heck, I enjoyed it.

Edgar Road es una calle típica de Londres; un camino lleno de gente que habitualmente ni se saluda. Hasta que llega Alfie, un gato precioso, una gran bola de pelo gris envuelta en un suave ronroneo que poco a poco, con su inteligencia, su astucia y su particular manera de vivir en elmundo, cambia la vida de la familia que lo acoge y, después, la de las personas que transitan en silencio por Edgar Road. Alfie tiene un don único, ya que es capaz de conocer los secretos mejor guardados. Solo así puede saber que Claire desea ser madre o que Alesky tiene serios problemas en la escuela. Él desea ayudarlos. Sin embargo, la llegada de unos nuevos vecinos altera la armonía del barrio y Alfie tiene que reaccionar inmediatamente.

¿Puede un gato cambiar tu vida? Déjate sorprender. Conoce a Alfie, un gato que te enamorará. Un protagonista dulce y simpático que tiene la capacidad de ayudar a las personas a encontrarse a sí mismas.
Como a cualquier otro gato, a Alfie le encanta pasarse el día dormitando en el sofá, delante de la chimenea. Le basta con unas cuantas caricias y algún que otro ronroneo para ser feliz, pero, de repente, se verá obligado a abandonar el hogar en el que se ha criad, se encontrará solo y perdido por las calles de Londres. Todo cambia al llegar a Edgar Road, un lugar lleno de jardines y preciosas casitas unifamiliares. Alfie comprende enseguida que solo allí conseguirá sentirse de nuevo como en casa. Únicamente allí podrá encontrar una nueva familia. Los habitantes del barrio, sin embargo, aún no están preparados para acogerlo. Demasiado absortos en sus problemas, no tienen tiempo para ocuparse de él, aunque pronto descubrirán que Alfie no es un gato cualquiera, sino que tiene un don especial: capaz de intuir los deseos mejor guardados de las personas, Alfie también puede reparar lo que el destino ha roto en sus vidas y escuchar la melodía silenciosa de sus corazones.

A touchy-feely book about monsters.

Read and reviewed by my 12 year old son.

5 stars all round amazing book thoroughly enjoyed it. It took me a while to get into the book because I hadn’t read the rest of the series of books but once I got into it I was engaged and wanted to read it. It is a wonderful book about the story of a cat called Alfie who tries to save the charity Christmas show from disaster by an evil person. I now want to read the rest of the series!

This is an adorable, touching, really good book about a London cat named Alfie who fancies himself taking care of human problems, even while dealing with his own. The book is novel-length and it deals well with true, difficult problems: both people & pet. I love Alfie! I loved his kitten and all his friends. I’ll go out of my way to read more Alfie books.

simpaticissimo il gatto Alfie, un po' meno gli altri protagonisti

Lettura molto piacevole. scritto bene. Ideale per serate in poltrona½

We just love this series! We never, ever, get tired of reading it again and again!

In each book the little white mouse is looking for his doggy, reindeer, dinosaur, monkey, bunny, train or lion that seems to be always lost. But before finding it he has to pass for many wrong ones, maybe because its paws are too soft, or its ears too velvety, or the tail too hairy. And you can actually touch them to check they really are! The text is easy and repetitive, so the kids quickly are able to "read" it, and its full of tasty words like bumpy, squashy and fluffy, that are always funny for them to say.

A cute, cute, cute series for toddlers.

Check out more children's book reviews in my Reviews in Chalk Blog!

Full, non-spoiler review courtesy at Book & Movie Dimension a Blog

Mandy is a girl that is quiet and likes it like this. Her family has lived in the city for most of her life. So, when she moves to a quiet town with her family and her nana, she completely feels it can be a bad experience. Mandy has no idea how right she is.
The characters themselves were striking and the plot felt very strong and I couldn't not tell which was better. Mandy isn't the outgoing girl or totally shy type but a good medium that made the story all the more good to get into. An important thing to note is the love interest will actually surprise readers. It's not I can say outright obvious. A little spontaneous which was much appreciated. Enchanted has a vibrant voice that to fantasy book readers will be refreshing.

That's Not My Monster is a typical touch-and-feel book, with just a few picture spreads and very normal fabrics to touch. The most original one is probably the swath on the cover, with its bobbly texture. Nonetheless, my daughters really liked this book. Maybe its the subject matter, as they love monsters - friendly monsters. Also, the middle monster has this shiny vinyl type material for paws. Both girls loved that page. I didn't expect much out of this book, but it's a hit with the girls, which earns it a solid average rating.

Mysteries, secrets, psychics, and witches all come together to create a tale that is truly "Enchanted."

Mandy is moving to York Beach, Maine to be near her Nana in her senior year. Blending into her environment and not causing notice to herself is how she would like it, but unforeseen rumors and secrets from the past surface making this way of going through life impossible. New friendships, romance, and mystery keep her life everything but uneventful. Come follow her story as she learns and grows from the links of the past (Thanks to Nana) and creates new beginnings for her future.

I really enjoyed this tale by RAchel Wells. I think she did a wonderful job from beginning to end in description, characterization, and just the all-around story. Mandy is a very easy character to get to know and I could totally relate to her in trying to stay out of the spotlight and just wanting evreything to go smoothly. That is so me and Ms. Wells captured those feelings and put them on paper perfectly. When I can personally relate and feel the emotions, it makes the story all that much better!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA paranormal romance.

This book was kindly provided to me by it's wonderful author for my honest review.

Liam adores this, it's hard to give up the library copy. The mixture of colourful pages and interesting textures bring him back again and again. There's an easy game of spot the mouse one each page that he's just started to get the hang of.

The best of the 'That's not my...' series! As someone who had an imaginary monster-friend as a child, I heartily approve.

My 5 months old and I love the monsters, and the touchy feely bits are really good on this one.½

It's very simple. A little mouse runs around trying to find his monster, each monster is wrong for some touchy-feely reason.

Very striking, simple pictures, very easy text for little babies and toddlers. Any child is capable of sitting through this one!

I do find that two of the pages stick together, probably because of the texture used on the paws ("bumpy"), and I am continually disappointed that the rough horns aren't very.

But overall, it's a great book in a great series.½