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Friday, 17 November 2023

Review: Bertie And The Ginger Cat

This exquisitely beautiful and timely book is about stepping into your own power and finding the treasures outside of fear.

Bertie prefers to stay home where it’s comfortable and ordered, with her little dog and bluebird. But one day, her pets have a different idea and Bertie must follow them into the big world outside to ensure they are safe.

And what a world it is! Full of surprises, not the least of which is a large, ginger cat who leads Bertie and her pets on a wondrous, merry adventure.

The beautiful gouache illustrations appear at first to be a little sedate and flat, before morphing into vivid colour as Bertie and her pets move into an exotic, exciting landscape.

With wonderful attention to white space, these illustrations also sparkle with colour and light – and reward pondering long after the words have been read.

There’s a warmth and comfort about Bertie And The Ginger Cat which explores danger in a gorgeously sophisticated, yet comforting and naïve, way! Is the large ginger cat actually a cat at all?

This book encourages a gorgeous and very clever rumination on how our own perceptions of safety, comfort, good and bad, can colour and influence the life we live.

Highly recommended.

Note – Parents and Carers, please look through this book before reading it to children, so that you know where the story ends. Author/illustrator sketches (not part of the actual story) adorn the final four pages.


Title: Bertie And The Ginger Cat
Author/Illustrator: Bex Parkin
Publisher: Red Paper Kite, $29.00
Publication Date: 1 October 2023
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780648502371
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture Book