Alone in the Night

Animal Stories #16

by Holly Webb

Jasmine is thrilled when she gets to catsit for her neighbours while they're away on holiday for Christmas. She adores looking after the beautiful Star and only wishes she could keep her forever! Star loves playing with Jasmine, and soon the pair are inseparable. But what Jasmine doesn't know is that Star has a secret. Although it is cold and dark outside, the time has come for Star to leave Jasmine and her warm, safe home, and find a place to hide.

Genres: Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Family, Christmas, Middle Grade

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Holly Webb is one of Britain's best-loved children's writers. She has written over a hundred books for children, and her work has been translated into over thirty languages. Holly lives in Tilehurst, just outside of Reading, Berkshire, with her husband, three children and several cats.

Reviews

[Nataniel ★彡]

cała historia by się nie wydarzyła, gdyby gwiazdka była kotem domowym i gdyby była wykastrowana 😡😡😡

biedna gwiazdeczka malutka

[Dorian Jandreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, cute story. I truly love it!

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book for children but as an adult, I really enjoy Holly Webb books. Enjoyable stories and a quick read.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an engrossing book which highlights the affection for animals.
The story mainly consists of a adorable kitten called Star and that Jasmine is asked to spend her whole holiday with her. But what Jasmine doesn’t know that Star has a secret....

[Akacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites from the series. I love cats so much.

[Kirjapallo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oi että, nämä Holly Webbin eläinkirjat on kyllä tosi ihania! :) Vähän vaan pisti silmään kun ulkona vapaana liikkuva kissa näytti olevan ihan normaali juttu.

Päähenkilönä on nuori Jasmine, joka haaveilee kovasti omasta kissasta mutta hänen vanhempansa eivät ollenkaan hyväksy ajatusta. Onneksi kuitenkin naapurissa asuu pieni Sissi-pentu, joka on niin seurallinen että ottaa tavaksi livahtaa joka päivä aidan ali Jasminen hellittäväksi.

Ja voi sitä onnea kun joulukuussa Sissin omistajat lähtevät kolmeksi viikoksi lomalle ja jättävät kissansa siksi aikaa Jasminen hoiviin! Kunpa vanhemmat tykästyisivät Sissiin niin että Jasminekin voisi joskus saada oman kissan. Mutta voi ei: yhtäkkiä Sissi vain lähtee omille teilleen.....!! Löytyykö se ennen kuin omistajat tulevat takaisin?

[Julie Hammersley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my daughter, it was a lovely story. My daughter loved Star.

[Julie Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the book, it was very cute. Personally I love cats, and I loved to see them in a book! Recommend to cat lovers!

[Ranette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little cat has kittens and a girl gets to keep one. Written with England in mind. Read it twice.

[Emma Labuscagne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's my favorite Holly webb cat book so far .
AMAZING 💖

[Summer Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute! Start is an adorable kitten protagonist, and Jasmine is a very thoughtful and kind little girl. These books are so cute and heartwarming and happy.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our 7-year-old picked up this & another Holly Webb book put out by Scholastic at a $5/bag sale, so, even though it looked silly to me, I figured whatever, reading is reading. It looked innocent enough... I thought, "It is just a cutesy, silly story about a kitty, whatever."

If you don't mind your child reading words like "fat," "chubby," "tubby," "chunky," etc, about a cat (kitten??) who is, in fact, pregnant after being mauled by a neighborhood cat & there being a great deal of shame around the fact that the kitten/cat has a growing "fat" belly & that they all feel shame & guilt about it, going so far as to repeatedly mention shame over this kitten getting "fat" even though they were so careful to control her food amount, because they also gave her treats, then tried to get her to exercise more but she still kept getting "fat" so they still keep expressing shame & guilt, then you'll love this story.

I am pissed at myself for not skimming these books first, as both "cute" & "innocent"-looking Holly Webb/Scholastic books she picked up were full of horrible shame-inducing lessons no child should be subjected to. I'm throwing them in the trash, where these terrible lessons belong. Society will, in all likelihood, introduce our youngest to fat, shame, guilt, etc, too, all too soon. I won't have these innocent-looking stories spreading that crap, this early, too. These "lessons" belong in the trash, along with this book.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so this book was really odd. I remembered how much I loved it as a kid, and I couldn’t wait to read it again, now that I’ve found it on my shelf, but has this author ever met a cat??? Like, cats are usually pretty different than how Star was.

Some of the problems I had was i was always so confused as to who was conveying their emotions. Third Person Omniscient is a very odd POV choice and was very confusing. The timing of everything was also super confusing. I thought Star was only a few months old, but then she gave birth???? Everything went so fast. Back to the thing about her giving birth, but when did Star find the time to... y’know with another cat and give birth in such short time??? I don’t know.
I did like the art scattered throughout and this would be a good story for children who don’t overthink things like I do.

[Dustin Dye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this chapter book to my third-grade daughter. She enjoyed it, and seemed to identify with the protagonist, Jasmine. I thought the author did a good job depicting the simple emotions and motivations of the cat, Star, without making her too anthropomorphic. The depiction seemed to stem from the author's own observation of cats.

One thing I found odd is that Star gets pregnant with kittens while still a small cat herself. I thought I might have missed a chapter denoting a longer passage of time. But after having the kittens toward the end there is a line mentioning Star is hardly more than a kitten herself. I know animals are prone to have babies as soon as they are physically able, but that doesn't need to be included in a children's book. I'll spare readers of this review any conspiracy theories about MKUltra/Beta kitten programming, but I'll just mention this was an odd creative choice on Ms. Webb's part.

[Heather Bunch · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 6 year old daughter asked me to read this one. It was obviously written for younger readers, so I will say that my daughter enjoyed it, and have rated it based on HER review to be fair. For me, as an adult, it wasn't as enjoyable as I think it might have been when I was much younger. The whole collection just looks depressing to me, but seems to be enough adventure and cute cuddly animals to impress a 6 year old. I would encourage her to read more from this author if she wanted to.

[Arska-täti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holly Webbin siloiset ja helppolukuiset eläintarinat jatkuvat.

Tässä kirjassa kissahullu Jasmine ihastuu naapurin Sissi-kissaan ja saa lopulta hoitaa sitä kuin omaansa, kun naapurit lähtevät lomamatkalle. Kissan hoito ei kuitnekaan ole niin yksinkertaista mitä Jasmine kuvittelee, ja Sissi järjestääkin varsinaisen yllätyksen kaikille.

Muuten ihan herttainen tarina, mutta kissan käyttäytymistä on inhimillistetty liikaa.

[Tiina Pulakka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eläinkirjat on yleensä parhaita, tämä ei niinkään vakuuttanut.
Ainoat asiat mitä mietin lukiessa oli, että ei kissoja saa pitää vapaana taajamassa, ja että sterkatkaa nyt ihmeessä se katti!
Ei jatkoon, huonoa esimerkkiä antaa kissojen pidosta.

Vinkattavaksi: EI!

[Dancer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. If you have kids 8-14 years old they would love this book. So I give this book a 5-star review.

[Frankie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kid loved it. “Is there an Alone in the Night #2?”, she asked when we finished it. I just love reading these to laugh at the title lists.

[Chelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with a reading group. We were super excited about the ending!

[Alana Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you read the book star isn't that much alone in the night she was only at the at the other house.

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very adorable little tale. An easy-to-read heartfelt book

[Alpdogan COBAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's great I like

[Norikaaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aranyos történet, de van pár dolog amit átírtam volna(szóhasználat)...

[Ilze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ja pašiem mājās vēl nav kaķēns, bet ir vēlme, tad pēc grāmatas izlasīšanas var vēl vairāk sākt gribēties :)

[Betül · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5. Yıldız bir yavru kedi sanılıyordu ama değildi. Gerisi kitapta.

[Zuzia · Rating 3 out of 5]

za dzieciaka lepiej się czytało

[Loredana (Bookinista08) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorabilă!!!

[Dussska · Rating 4 out of 5]

tylko dlatego, że to moja książka dzieciństwa

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute story. I picked it up off my shelf at school to model proper reading with my students.