Ah story written about the time when lighthouses were lit with candles, a lighthouse keeper makes friends with a cat who later manages to save a ship from crashing when the candles burn out.

The story reads like folklore and it easy to imagine as something that would be part of a small town's history. The illustrations are full page and framed alongside the story, which has more words than an average picture book. Mackerel the cat investigating the beach and peeking out from the drawings feels very much "cat." It's a lovely book just to flip through even without reading.

The lighthouse is inspired be Smeaton's Tower in Southwest England, and there is short information page in the back of the book. ( )

The first thing I noticed while reading this book was the blue sea borders around the pages and illustrations. It makes the illustrations look like photographs; they look so clean and simple. I enjoyed this story and how these smart cats came together to save the day. I feel like this book would be a great book to read aloud to kids because it has some repetitive words and the image and the page of Mackerel "screaming" to the other cats in the town and towns nearby is just such a fantastic page I think children would enjoy. I will definitely have this book in my library! ( )

I agree with the other reviewers - the pictures are gorgeous, the history is interesting, but the drama is a bit too fantastical. ( )

Taking as her inspiration the candle-powered lighthouse known as Smeaton's Tower, which stood at the Eddystone Rocks, south of Plymouth, England, from the mid eighteenth through the mid nineteenth centuries, Sue Stainton spins a tale of a lonely lighthouse keeper, and the cat, dubbed Mackerel, who came to be his best (and only) companion. When a terrible storm blows out all the candles in Smeaton's Tower, and a small fishing boat looks to be coming ever closer to the jagged rocks offshore, it seems that tragedy must follow. Fortunately, Mackerel knows just what to do, and, summoning all his feline compatriots from the nearby village, sets up a natural "light" using their reflective eyes.

Author/artist team Sue Stainton and Anne Mortimer, who have collaborated on a number of cat-centered picture-books, from Santa's Snow Cat to The Chocolate Cat, return to their favorite theme with The Lighthouse Cat. Although I cannot say that the story was exactly my cup of tea - something about the resolution of the crisis didn't appeal to me, most likely because I simply had trouble suspending my disbelief, and going along with the idea that the boat captain would see the cats' eyes, while being tossed about in the dark sea (not to mention that the cats would be organized in that way) - the artwork was immensely appealing. Mortimer really knows how to capture the feline charm! For another tale of a lighthouse cat, I would recommend Ruth Brown's Gracie, The Lighthouse Cat, which also takes a real lighthouse (and historic tale) as its inspiration, and which would make an excellent companion to Stainton and Mortimer's The Lighthouse Cat. ( )

There is a man who takes care of the light house, and relights the candles every thirty minutes. One day after receiving supplies, he finds a cat in one of the crates. On one stormy night all of the candles were blown out, and anyone on a ship would not be able to see the shoreline. There was a boat out on the water getting closer to the rocks, so the cat called all of the nearby cats. They climbed the lighthouse, and after the moonlight reflected in their eye; saved the boat. ( )