An interesting premise, but developed too extensively and sometimes very, very boring.
There are some situations that I cannot understand. For example, if this group of children are the hope for salvation of that world, why are they abandoned halfway without a guide to help them reach their destination? Or if they have been told endlessly that every gift has a weakness and that they should be careful, why does no one help Wesley? I think Gabrielle was the one to help him, but she preferred her comfort. Or the guy with a stupid gift, Dylan I think, that every time he participates it's just to show how selfish he is.
To make matters worse, the book ends in a huge CLIFFHANGER and although it was published in 2019, there is still no second book!!!
More than enough reasons to give it only two stars. Sorry, but I'm not sorry: I can't recommend this story.
I thank the authors and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

I got a copy of this book for review from NetGalley.

This book pleasantly surprised me. It certainly has the flavours of CS Lewis, but without the theology.

The “bad”: bad is too strong a word, but for the first few chapters it was hard to get into. I think there’s too many characters so it takes a long time to get them fleshed out (and some of the time remained sort of cardboardy by the end). The end seems to happen really fast.

The good: once I got into it, the characters were well done and likeable. I get that the different “gifts” contribute in different ways to the story. The world building was nice, too. I was curious and interested in it.

Overall, it was an enjoyable kids fantasy book. I’ll probably read the sequel.

My thanks to NetGalley and Oriafen Books, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

This book did not work for me, but I can see it's appeal for middle readers who enjoy fantasy with characters from our world.

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW:

A few words of warning if you are considering this book.

1) There are 15 characters in this book. There is a drawn picture of each child with their name at the beginning of the book, which is helpful in keeping the characters as distinct in your mind. As such, I highly recommend this as a real book and not as an eBook, as it is easier to flip back and forth in a real book.

Suggestion to the author, maybe also include the character's magical ability and weakness as well, since that can help to keep each character as distinct.

2) This is the first of a series and ends on a cliffhanger. Do yourself a favor and wait for the next book to come out before reading this one, as the ending is a "to be continued" and in this day and age of instant gratification, is annoying when the reader has to wait for an undetermined amount of time for the next book.

That being said, the above annoyed me. The below annoyed me too.

1) The magic system is not overly clear, none of the world is overly clear or explained well. The 15 MCs are children and don't ask a lot of questions, but when they DO ask questions, the questions are only half-answered, are answered in ways that make no sense to the children or the reader, or they aren't answered at all. NOTHING is clear in the story and it's annoying.

2) The magical gifts aren't always clear and neither are the weaknesses. Some of the weaknesses seem the same, like the magic is used and it causes almost instant passing out. Some seem to have no weaknesses, while others seem to have no magic, but a really horrible weakness that makes no sense if the magic isn't being used or isn't obvious that it's being used.

3) If these kids' are the hope for the land against the evil in it, then how is ABANDONING them when some of their fellow elf rangers die during an attack on the kids even PARTIALLY logical? The kids were trying to get to the Kingdom of the Silver Cat, accompanied by some fae and some elf rangers who were there to allegedly guard them and help them on their way. The party gets attacked by the Big Bad's minions, as Good Guys are wont to do. Some elf rangers die. The rest are all like, "Yeah, gotta go bury our homeboys, good luck getting to the Silver Cat, lolz. Oh, and we takin' the big attack bird with us. #sorrynotsorry" So, just going to let practically defenseless children who don't know the world, don't know the WAY and are under HUGE threat by the Big Bad to make it on their own?? I don't care WHAT their religious/spiritual ways are with the dead, which AREN'T explained NEARLY well enough to make their reaction ok, these are CHILDREN, who were just ATTACKED. Your fellow Bros DIED to defend them, and you are just going to WALK AND take the only other defense they have?!?

4) Of COURSE the children split up, of COURSE. Even when told, staying here isn't safe, some choose to stay and they SURPRISE get attacked and captured. I get it, I do, they are kids, they don't always make the best of decisions, especially when they are in stressful situations, but COME ON. They were attacked before (because one of the girls didn't listen and got the attention of the minions sent to capture them, I'm sensing a theme here) and know the Big Bad isn't going to stop til he gets them. So they stay behind, rather than go to where they will be safe? Again, they are scared kids, but the reader has already been asked by the story to just believe everything else that has gone on thus far and it's too much and stretches credulity to the breaking point, at least for me.

5) Bobby made that whistle for that kid (can't recall his name atm) and it obviously can be used for protection, but while he was being carried away by the minions, he didn't think to take it out and use it? He was conscious and had free use of his hands, he could have reached the whistle on a chain around his neck and blown into it. Just sayin'.

The bones of the idea of this story are good, the characters aren't half bad, but there are too many of them to be able to follow and care about. Nothing is explained, like whatever happened to the bus driver? Did he get any magical gifts and weaknesses too? Why aren't the kids more concerned about him? They didn't really ask anyone they met about him. Also, the two kids who met the druid guy, when he said he was from their world and came over on a bus years ago and he indicated that one of his friends turned into the frost monster they met, why didn't they ask about others that had come across with him? Ask him about his journey and how he and his fellow bus riders survived, or didn't and why? Asked more about the world they were in? Ask for more info about the magical gifts and weaknesses so they would have an idea what to expect?

I'm not saying this is a bad book, and I'm sure many middle grade readers will enjoy it, but it didn't work for me. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from reading it, other than to say wait for the next book to be out so the ending won't frustrate them.

Personally, I can't give this more than 1 star for my reading enjoyment of it. Again, not saying to not read it and I am sure from the positive reviews that I am in the minority on how I feel about it. Not my cup, but would flip through the second book once it's available to see if my issues are resolved in the next one.

Review to come. Thanks to Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date December 7, 2019
#KingdomoftheSilverCat #NetGalley

The cover was beautiful and the blurb seemed interesting but it was so many characters all over and it made it a little hard to focus. The fantasy part wasn`t for me i think.

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

3.5 stars

The first thing that caught my attention was the gorgeous cover you see above. Isn't it stunning? Well, let's get to the review, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

This is a middle grade adventure story in which 10 children take the bus to school one morning, as usual. At a crossroads, they find themselves transported to a magical fantasy world where there are many dangers as well as magical creatures that try to help them in their quest to look for a way to go back home.

I thought the characters were brilliantly made. Each child acquires a power once they arrive into the fantasy world that goes with their personality and their rol in the story. All of these powers fit each of their personalities perfectly, even giving you tips on how they'll behave and interact.

The world they get to introduces quite a lot of magical beings and events, such as fairies, sprites, huge evil birds, a gigantic silver cat, humans who arrived like them and stayed and dragons. However, you're never confused either among the characters or the magical beings. The author did a great job intertwining their personal stories with the events they go through. It is never easy to portray so many different characters and do it in a way the reader never feels confused.

Regarding the world-building, I thought it was perfect. Atmosphere is what catches my attention first on a book and makes me like it more than the media, and this book's created magical world is so atmospheric I dived straight into it and was able to imagine everything clearly; colours, appearance and magical beings.

Nevertheless, there were a couple of issues I found on the writing style and a certain character.

Regarding the style, I found it appropriate for the age range and easy to read, although every now and then, there'd be a paragraph that seemed written for a 4-year-old given that the sentences became straightforward, short and simple, with no connection between ideas. That leaves the reader lost, kicking them out of the story and trying hard to dive back into the world.

Also about the writing style, I believe the chapters were too long. 409 pages with approximately 20 pages per chapter may be too long for the age range it's aimed at.

One of the characters, Dylan, obtains the ability to jump incredibly high through farting. This is ok and even funny, initially, but not when the farting thing is repeated far way too many times throughout the book.

I'd recommend this book to those who like a good adventure story and are character or atmosphere driven, mainly.

A dozen schoolchildren are plunged into an otherworldly adventure of a lifetime in Kingdom of the Silver Cat by Thomas Carroll. This book for young readers is creative, authentic, and unique, but also supported by strong life lessons and powerful messaging for impressionable minds.

On an average morning trip to school, a New York school bus is mysteriously transported to an unknown wilderness, and once the bus driver leaves to go find help, the children onboard are left to fend for themselves. As impatience wins out over caution, they begin to explore, quickly realizing not only that their surroundings are magical, but also that some of them have begun developing powers: healing, flight, freezing abilities, telekinesis, and much more. Some of them also shared the same strange dream of a world just like the one where they’re now stranded.

With fifteen characters, there are a few key characters that lead the story, but the author still gives all of them particular moments to shine, though some personalities do remain underdeveloped. .

Personally It was a confusing read and I was impatient to get through to the end

On a wet rainy morning, fifteen children ranging in age from 8 to 13 get on their town school bus for their regular trip to school. The bus turns a corner, runs into a wall of blue mist and ends up stuck in the mud in a sunny meadow with nothing but fields and trees around them. When noone’s cell phone can get a signal, the school bus driver, Ben, tells the children to stay on the bus while he looks for help. But Ben does not come back and the children are left on their own to deal with an increasingly different world. During the night a strange mist creature attacks them; when they go looking for food and water the next day the path back to the bus disappears. As they go further into this strange new land, they discover talking fish and fairies as well as discovering that each of them has some magical power. Told that only the Silver Cat can help them get home they head for the Cat’s city. Along the way the children get split up and some are captured by Sidtar, who wishes to strip their powers from them for himself.

This was an interesting read. The children are all fleshed-out individual characters, perhaps a bit too cooperate and nice to each other but generally a good representation of how real children behave in groups. The group is diverse so most children should be able to find a child like themselves in the group. There is some darkness but not such that it would be too frightening for the younger middle school reader. While my e-copy from Netgalley did not include them, other than the thumbnail sketches of the children and a map at the beginning, the book includes illustrations by Linda Huang and Jackie Carroll. Aimed at middle school and tween readers this fantasy will also appeal to the young-at-heart adult reader. I eagerly look forward to the next chapter in this series. Highly recommended.

A school bus (aka great beast) enters a blue light even though the bus driver tries not to. When he stops the bus appears to be in a meadow. The kids on the bus are from third grade to eighth grade. The bus driver tells the kids that since none of the phones work, he will go and look for help. The kids wait for a few days in the bus as instructed but hunger overtakes them so they go looking for something to eat. After eating, they realize that they have been given special powers or gifts. The kids decide to go look for the bus driver. Their journey has begun. As they follow a path, they meet fairies first, then other magical things happen. Some of the kids get separated from the group, some decide to stay and live with the fairies, while others travel on with ranger fairies. There are different fairies in the book. As the kids that decided to go to the kingdom of the silver cat for help, they find themselves abandoned by the ranger fairies and must go alone without help. Will the kids make it to the kingdom of the silver cat? Do they find the bus driver?

The author has written a wonderful action-packed story with several adventures that have unexpected twists and turns. The characters are expertly described so that you feel as if you know them personally. There are illustrations, maps, a glossary of words used in the mysterious land they are traveling through. I enjoy the book as it is so well written I forgot everything else I needed to do. It has underneath the great story themes of understanding, being kind and responsibility. This is a book that can be read by adults (for themselves) as well as tweens.

This is a really fun read, it reminded me a bit of The Wizard Of Oz, in that a bus crash happens and a bunch of school kids end up in another land, being chased by a baddie and having to go on a journey to the Kingdom of the Silver Cat who can help them get home.

Other than the general outline though, this book is very much it’s own, I was disappointed by the kid whose skill was farting though - it seemed at odds with everyone else but I'm sure his skill will make sense in the next book...

A lot does happen, but I did feel there was a bit of padding out and I did get a little frustrated at points.

I did really enjoy this book though, and I would recommend it very much!

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Thomas Carroll has developed a land of fairies, evil black birds with a mysterious leader in which a bus load of gifted children arrive. The children began to explore the new world and face danger from the person who wants to take their gifts for himself, it is determined that for them to be safe they must travel to the land of the Silver Cat, along their journey the group gets separated into smaller parts. Will they find the Cat in time? I finished the book but didn’t find it truly engaging, I didn’t empathize with the children or believe that they were endangered.
#KingdomoftheSilverCat #NetGalley

Did not manage to finish because it was way too slow-paced for me. I'm sure this does appeal to middle grade readers, and I can imagine younger me loving the characters!

About the characters, there were too many of them. I managed to tell those with distinct personality traits apart from each other but many others were a bit blurry. I appreciated the character list at the beginning of the book a lot though!

If this had a slightly quicker tempo and less characters to focus on, I'm sure I would have loved this!

On a seemingly normal day, a school bus full of children suddenly vanishes and is transported to a completely different world. The children must navigate this world on their own in order to find their way back home. While wandering through the strange land, they notice other strange things happening as well - aside from the talking fish and glowing fruits, each child seems to be exhibiting strange powers while giant blackbirds appear to be hunting them down.

For a middle-grade fantasy, this was kind of a difficult book for me to follow, mostly because there were so many characters and POVs (there were 15 kids in total). I appreciated that the book included a list of the children and their age/description/portrait at the beginning of the book but I had to make notes on the side to keep track of who was who and which character had which powers. Most of these characters kind of blended into one. Personality-wise, the only kids that really stood out to me were Josh (the leader), Rhea (the moody one), and Bobby (the one with the speech impediment). Most of the other characters were bland, completely forgettable, and don't seem to add much to the story (such as Sarah, Timmy, Mya, and Emma).

As for the special powers, I thought some of the children's powers were absolutely ridiculous, useless, and didn't add to the story either (at least not yet). For example, there is one kid (Dylan) who - and I kid you not - can launch into the air whenever he farts. Another kid (Ted) can create music whenever he waves his hand around.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of the dialogue - some of it actually made me cringe, like when Gabrielle (the skater girl) said: "it feels rad." Rad? Uhm, are these kids from the 80s?

The book was also quite long with not much of a story arc going for it. The first part of the novel was about the kids wandering aimlessly looking for help (and getting split up along the way). The second half of the novel was about the kids heading over to the Silver City to find the help that they need. The second half of the novel kind of reveals the overarching plot for the series (spoiler: that a chosen one is destined to overthrow the bad guys) but I felt like there wasn't enough going on in the first book to maintain my interest in the series.

Disappointed. I was expecting a lot more "magical place" then I got. And , yes, it bothered me that a book is titled Kingdom of the Silver Cat, yet doesn't appear until near end. In honesty, the Wizard of Oz in same titles movie , doesn't appear until pretty close to the end either, just saying... so this book has, in fact, a precedent. Too many characters, other then magical skills, no real reason to have so many as nothing else makes them stand apart from each other. Book may appeal to 4-5 graders, seriously, I am not it's target audience. But I have read better stories. Sorry. Needs work.

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of fantasy. However, I read a fair amount of middle grade and YA fiction because I’m an English teacher. This book just never grabbed me. It was very repetitive and had an enormous cast of characters. The number of key players was a little difficult since their voices were all fairly identical. There were also a number of details that seemed unnecessary, as if their function was just to up the word count.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book. The description of the story drew me in and continued to hold my interest as the plot unraveled. The author introduces the array of characters with sketches and short descriptions before the story begins to aide the reader in keeping track of each child. Carrol does a great job of worldbuilding to captivate the reader. At times, the writing felt repetitive and drawn out but overall the story was riveting!

Princess Fuzzypants here: I have to review this book in segments because there were things I liked about the book and things that drove me crazy. First of all, the title had me searching for the titular Silver Cat so much that it took me quite a while to settle into the story on its own terms. Said cat does not appear until the book is more than 90% finished. He does make a pretty spectacular entrance and he is very cool but it felt like a fraud to have so much of the book about everything else.

A group of kids on a school bus travel through a blue mist and end up in another time and place where magic is the norm. They discover they are the Gifted Ones. It is never explained how or why an entire school bus of kids should share this talent but we can let that go. They all walk away from the bus and then cannot return. Again, there is no explanation or reason. As the travel, each of them begins to discover their new abilities. They are told that these gifts are amazing but they come with a price. It is up to them to discover the gift and then the cost for if they do not, the cost can be their undoing.

The group gets split up and they encounter many new creatures and characters along the road, some who befriend and help them and some who want to snatch them up and use their skills for evil purposes. They are told that the Silver Cat is the only one who can protect them and so begins the journeys to his Kingdom. There are some exciting and nail biting adventures along the way and it has a terrific finish for part of the group. But then it does something I just hate. It leaves us with a gaping big cliffhanger. That drives me crazy.

It detracted from the reading experience. I am happy to suspend disbelief but I don’t want something with Swiss cheese holes. For that reason I am only giving this three and a half stars and one paw up.

A few weeks ago I was rewatching the Studio Ghibli file, The Cat Returns, as a part of my recent fascination with the portal fantasy subgenre, which features a very different journey through a portal to a very different cat kingdom. (This year’s reading list was becoming weirdly full of portal fantasies entirely by coincidence, so I decided to lean into the trend). Immediately after finishing the movie, I saw this title on available on NetGalley and it dovetailed nicely with my focus, as it is both a portal fantasy <i>and</i> contains a cat kingdom – one of those weird Glitch In The Matrix flavored coincidences.
I am firmly of the opinion that no one ever truly grows out of middle grade fiction, as long as it is well done. I was a little worried at the outset that this book, despite its promising premise, was going to miss out on that qualification as the beginning of this book is exposition heavy (a personal pet peeve, though it is perhaps to be expected with such an extensive ensemble cast – I also tend to prefer less extensive physical descriptions of characters; I like the concept that every reader can have a different picture of each character in their head). The book features very detailed illustrations at the start of each chapter, including a brief dramatis personae before the narrative begins, with school ID style drawings and descriptions of the children in this story.

The story begins when a school bus full of children accidentally crashes through a portal into another world (in another odd coincidence, the same thing happened in the book I read just before this, The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, but with significantly more disastrous results for the school children and their bus driver; that book was a horror novel and that alternate reality was far more vicious). As the fifteen children search for a way home, they find that in this new world each of them has been gifted, or cursed, with a different power.

This is a really fun and imaginative book that I would recommend to any child I know, and several fantasy loving adults. The episodic nature of many of the chapters would make it an excellent bed time story—though perhaps skim ahead so you don’t send your kids to sleep on one of the more unsettling chapters (the evil icy mist comes to mind, particularly in conjunction with its illustration).

My only minor complaint is that the world-building, though fascinating and extensive, occasionally falls into the trap of being too descriptive to feel organic—places where the scene was capable of showcasing the world get muddied by words that try to show off the fact that the world-building exists (That old teacher’s favorite “show don’t tell” does sometimes have merit).

I read this as an ebook, but strongly suspect that print is a more favorable format if you plan to be flipping back and forth from the story to the character list and the appendices. With fifteen main characters, it does take some effort to keep track of everyone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book.

I give it a three for a solid premise, it's the writing that I couldn't really enjoy. A lot of telling, not a lot og showing. Character descriptions are given in a similar style so with every addition, and there are a lot, it gets repetitive. So many characters and points of view and the writing felt like it dragged on in areas it shouldn't have that made it a slow, trudging read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51889080-kingdom-of-the-silver-cat

1/5 stars

An interesting premise but failed to execute.

A bus full of students is pulled into a parallel world where every earth human is given a gift with a price.

The world building is extensive but confusing and many times holes in the plot were ignored while other elements were repetitive and shallow. There was definitely an issue with the sheer number of characters and POVs. Details conflicted and the episodic structure made for a difficult slog through over half the book. Descriptive passages were mostly enjoyable but overall lent to too much “tell” to the narrative.

I received a free copy from NetGalley and Oriafen Books in exchange for an honest review.