The Fantora Family Photographs

Writing in the last issue of Books for Keeps, Ad$eGle Geras argued for the kind of children's book in which the author has leisure to unfurl a story in an unhurried manner, embroidering it with whimsical details as she does so. This collection of anecdotes about a marvellously outlandish family is such a book. It's narrated by the loquacious Fantora cat who, for readers who missed The Fantora Family Files, provides an introduction outlining the bizarre magical attributes of each member of the clan. These powers, ranging from straightforward invisibility to the gift of prophecy through knitting, enliven the humorous, fantastical, meandering stories that follow. A distinctive book for fluent and more patient readers.