I love cats. Cats are cool. They are soft but tough, clever but stupid, affectionate but mean. My cute black and white cat Saffy will purr and cuddle and love you to bits – and then she'll scratch you because she's in a bad mood randomly. Cats are interesting, and that's why I chose Paws and Whiskers to review.
Jacqueline Wilson selected and wrote some of the stories in this anthology about cats and dogs. Each story is written by a different author, and Jacqueline Wilson includes an introduction for each one, saying why she chose the story. Some of the stories are new and some are from ages ago (the nineteenth century). There's a little bit from 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carroll, and a bit from 'David Copperfield' by Charles Dickens. The first story, 'Leonie's Pet Cat', is by my favourite author Jacqueline Wilson. It's about a girl called Leonie who moves schools and is desperate to be in a club called The Girls Pet Club, but she doesn't have a pet so she pretends to have one. She tells stories about her imaginary cat and draws a realistic picture of her favourite author's pet and says it belongs to her. In my opinion, the best part of this story is when Leonie meets her favourite author and her dream comes true. There's another Jacqueline Wilson story called 'The Werepuppy' about a boy who's terrified of dogs and has to learn to face his fears. 'Ice Lolly' is a book by Jean Ure, and 'Paws and Whiskers' features an extract of it inside. It's very sad because the main character loses her mum in the first few pages, and the only thing she has left in the world is the old family cat called Mr Pooter. I loved this extract, and will look for this book in the library so I can find out what happens. Another favourite was 'The Daydreamer' by Ian McEwan. It's a weird but interesting story about a boy who has an exciting adventure in the life of a cat. 'The Diary of a Killer Cat' by Anne Fine is short but very funny. It's from the view of an angry, aggressive cat, which made me laugh a lot.

As well as the stories, there's a section called 'Pets' Corner' where some of the authors from this book write about their own pets.
I read this book in a day because when I start I can't stop reading. Though I loved the stories, I thought they were a bit too short and for each I needed to know more.

I rate it 8.5 out of 10.
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