Review: The Popular Kiwi Series Continues
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2011
Vickie Johnstone has responded to the popularity of the Kiwi series first installment KIWI IN CAT CITY and has just completed the Part 2 of what promises to be a long line of tales involving the morphing of humans into cats.  This story is much longer and involves some very sound lessons in philosophy for the young reader.Once again the cat named Kiwi belong to Amy and James takes the children on further trips to Cat World, and again the humans take on the form of kittens renamed Ames and Jimster.  The initial trip in this book comes after Amy and James discover that the flowers in their garden are drooping and that there do not appear to be pollinating bees.  The three - Kiwi, Amy and James - set out to discover the mystery and find that the bees are all huddled at the river because the Queen Bee refuses them to pollinate flowers that are going to die anyway.  And so, adventure completed, the three are off again: the trip to Cat City happens whenever Kiwi coaxes the children into the purple cloud that transforms them into a place completely populate by cats (read catizens).  This time around we meet Kiwi's mother Moogie and we are entertained by her 'new influence' on kiwi: Moogie has a past and the three learn about parenting.  A return to the 'real world' finds James and Amy readjusting to their human forms - a state that provides some comical episodes as they find difficulty leaving their kitten ways behind...But there are other adventures in this volume, one include the mysterious appearance of a giant mouse who threatens the catizens. In the Cat World there is some missing magic and it is up to the three heroes to find the Mouse King, defeat that threatening menace and return to a degree of normalcy.  But of course Book 3 is already in the making.Vickie Johnstone is a born storyteller and has the talent to keep her series fresh with new adventures while maintaining the usual cast of characters - and adding new ones to bring on the magic.  In her second book she introduces some well designed wisdom about traits all children should learn and this is a major plus to the further growth of the series.  If there is a criticism to be leveled it is the need for illustrations: reading stories such as this on a Kindle format can tire the eyes.  Were there some hope that the books will appear in printed format complete with the illustrations which beg to be present in this series, Johnstone's Kiwi books  would become a best sellers!  Grady Harp, July 11