LoveReading4Kids Says
Cat the cat and Dumpling the dog are flatmates and best friends. Even so, they sometimes argue, especially when Dumpling wants a quiet day, his idea of bliss, and Cat wants adventure, which is most of the time.
In this story they’ve fallen out so end up entering the local talent show separately, rather than as a duo. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that teamwork creates the best work after all, and young readers will be delighted with the happy ending.
This is another fun and satisfying story in a series which with its lovely colour illustrations and short chapters is perfect for new readers. It also gently delivers a message about friendship, respect for others and getting along.
Reviewed by Andrea ReeceAndrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.
More reviews by Andrea Reece About Cat and Dumpling: The Talent Show
The second book in a charming new series by author Nicola Kent. Packed with beautiful full-colour illustrations and a delightful story about best friends, Cat and Dumpling.
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Cat and Dumpling: The Talent Show Synopsis
The second book in a charming new series by author Nicola Kent. Packed with beautiful full-colour illustrations and a delightful story about best friends, Cat and Dumpling.
Cat and Dumpling are best friends, but they're very different. Cat is an impulsive dreamer who loves to knit, and Dumpling is a cautious planner who loves gardening.
In these chapter books for early readers the pair's far-fetched schemes and conflicting ideas wreak warm-hearted slapstick havoc, but always with a happy ending and a reassertion that despite their differences Cat and Dumpling will always be the very best of friends.
In The Talent Show, Cat and Dumpling are having a Quiet Day in the garden. It's the ideal day for Dumpling, but Cat wants to do something exciting. Signing up for the talent show seems like the perfect solution, until Cat learns that Dumpling doesn't want to join her. Even worse, Dumpling starts to feel left out, and after a squabble, the two become rivals in the talent show. How can they possibly remain friends now?
Look out for the first book in the series: Cat and Dumpling: Home Sweet Home.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780192788474 |
| Publication date: |
4th September 2025 |
| Author: |
Nicola Kent |
| Illustrator: |
Nicola Kent |
| Publisher: |
Oxford University Press an imprint of OUP OXFORD |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
86 pages |
| Series: |
Cat and Dumpling |
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About Nicola Kent
Nicola Kent is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books that have been published in over 20 different languages.
Nicola has been working with words and pictures all her life. She did a degree in Art and English, worked as a TV producer for the BBC and Channel 4, wrote scripts for children’s animation, and finally kickstarted her dream of a career in children’s books via an MA in Children’s Book Illustration.
Nicola likes her books to feel handmade as if created at the kitchen table especially for her reader. Her illustrations are made with ink, watercolour, pencil and various printing techniques which she collages together digitally.
Nicola grew up in Holloway, London and now lives up the road in Hackney with her family, cat and dog. She loves gardening and cycling and thinks knowing how and when to be silly is one of the most important life skills.
Nicola has a tracheostomy and a very quiet voice. This was caused by damage to her airway during treatment in intensive care when she was a child, and multiple surgeries since. The left side of her diaphragm is also paralysed which means her breathing is difficult on stairs or hills!
Nicola’s experience of chronic health issues and disability are very specific but have given her insight into more universal challenges of coping with difference. She also understands from many years of experience the difficulties of juggling normal life with the patient’s life: treatment, appointments and health admin all add to the often tiring repercussions of functioning with a physical difficulty. And through her direct experience of a sudden and critical childhood illness, she has great empathy and understanding of children coping with the aftermath of trauma.
Nicola’s books often draw on her personal experience to create universal ideas that resonate widely, for example in The Strongest Mum and Giraffe and a Half. She regards warm humour as massively important and feels strongly that books that give those qualities to children can be hugely healing as well as entertaining and life affirming.
Nicola feels strongly that children with differences and disabilities should also feature in books in which that difference or disability is not the focus. Most people with a disability do not want it to define them. In Measuring Me, for example, there is a girl with a tracheostomy and a boy with a walking frame, but these are incidental in a book which is about extraordinary facts of measurement and scale in the human body.
Nicola enjoys events and school visits and feels it’s important and valuable that children are given the opportunity to meet people living with a disability who are also getting to work in a dream job!
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