Imagicat

4/5 ( ratings)

Jeffrey Holiwell, eleven years old and always in trouble with his sixth grade teacher for playing the class clown and failing to do his assignments, dreams of becoming a writer. Unfortunately, Jeff has an uncanny knack of creating obstacles between himself and his dream. Enter his alter ego, a cheeky black and white cat, a talking, invisible Imagicat, that only Jeff can see or hear. Jeff names the rascal Mortimer. The cat's mission is to help Jeff become a writer, but to Jeff it seems that Mortimer just creates chaos everywhere they go. Jeff is too frustrated and too busy trying to cover up for Mortimer to realize there is method in his Imagicat's madness. At first he rejects the cat's suggestion to enter a writing contest but when his friend Sarah insists she'll finish a book before he does, Jeff decides to give it a try. Jeff starts writing a chapter book based on Mortimer's outlandish antics. He enlists his neighbor, Mr. Rollins, to help with his secret project and keys it in on Rollins' computer. With only four months to complete the book and submit the manuscript, Jeff copes with writing, revising, writer's block, Mortimer's continuing misbehavior, family misunderstandings, and at last the elation of completing his story in time to enter the contest. Ever since Jo in Little Women, it is chiefly the girls who scribble notebooks full of stories and dream of becoming writers someday. Jerri Garretson gives us a believable boy scribbler from Manhattan, Kansas, in an absorbing story that keeps the reader wondering, "What happens next?" Both boys and girls will be happy to meet Jeff and share his agonies and triumphs. Some of those readers may wish to write their own endings to the story. What do they want to happen to Jeff's alter ego, his Imagicat, after Jeff finishes his book?