Book Review | The Cat Who Saved the Library #booksky

The Cat Who Saved the Library is the sequel to The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, which I featured last time I did the A to Z Challenge, and reviewed in 2021. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC. This sequel due out on 10th April, but I couldn’t squeeze it in on the right day next month!

And talking of the A to Z Challenge, don’t forget to sign up, if you plan to do it. The A2Z signup (which opened last Monday) becomes a master list that people can use to visit you and read your posts (and hopefully comment on them). And with any luck, they’ll like what they see and become regular followers. You need to sign up on the A to Z website by 5th April. All the details are here.

The Cat Who Saved the Library (The Cat Who… #2)

By Sosuke Natsukawa

The highly anticipated sequel to Sosuke Natsukawa’s The Cat Who Saved Books – an uplifting tale from Japan about a talking cat, a book-loving girl and the power of books to make a difference in the world.

Nanami sees nothing wrong with a library and cat combination. But a talking cat is a whole other story.

Thirteen-year-old Nanami Kosaki loves reading. The local library is a home from home and books have become her best friends. When Nanami notices books disappearing from the library shelves, she’s particularly curious about a suspicious man in a grey suit whose furtive behaviour doesn’t feel right. Should she follow him to see what he’s up to?

When a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears to warn her about how dangerous that would be, together they’re brave enough to follow the frightening trail to find out where all the books have gone. Will Nanami and Tiger overcome the challenges of the adventure ahead?

Warm, wonderful and wise, The Cat Who Saved the Library is also a powerful lesson never to underestimate the value of great literature, and a reminder always to think for ourselves, no matter what our charismatic leaders might say.[goodreads]

My Review

Warm, wise and wonderful. I can’t help but echo that last paragraph of the blurb. This is a wonderful book, and absolutely appropriate for this time. People are in danger from those who have forgotten what really matters. It may be just me, but it strongly evokes the news of the moment. We have to fight whatever is making people forget what really matters.

From this you understand that I was totally absorbed into this world and its strange events. It’s beautifully written, and argued between the characters. I suppose I should class it as ‘literary’ but somehow it’s more accessible than what ‘literary’ means to me.

If you have not yet read The Cat Who Saved Books, then do so, as a matter of priority. I don’t think this would be a good place to start, but it’s an excellent place to continue. And I don’t think it’s for children, although kids these days have such different experiences to cope with, maybe it would help.