A young sexton with a reputation for telling tall tales, Peter finds it difficult to convince Father Allen that the extraordinary things he's been seeing are real. Who would believe a story about a large black cat being crowned in the church? Or the tale of a group of cats, mounted on foxes, hunting a dog? Peter is on the verge of being dismissed from his job when he brings one final story to Father Allen. But then the father's own cat does something very surprising...

According to Aaron Shepard's brief note, this traditional English story was originally found in Joseph Jacobs' 1894 collection, More English Fair Tales, and variants of it can be found in other European folk traditions. I found the story here engaging, and appreciated some of the humorous details, such as the fact that the town is called 'Tabby-on-Thames.' The accompanying illustrations from Kristin Sorra, whose artwork I know from another feline picture-book, Scarlett the Cat to the Rescue: Fire Hero, is colorful and cute, in a stylized, cartoon-like way. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, as well as to young cat lovers. ( )

King o' the Cats is written by Aaron Shepard and illustrated by Kristin Sorra. This is folk tale that closely resembles Peter and the Wolf. It's about a young church sexton, who is known around town as a liar. He is always telling the most insane stories ever heard. But when things really do start to get weird, no one will believe him. He begins to see many strange occurrences involving the cats around town. They're having meetings, hunting dogs, and having a funeral. Each time the young boy runs to tell the one person he thinks will believe him, Father Allan, but he is wrong. Father Allan doesn't believe him until the proof reveals itself right before his eyes. The story is charmingly, funny and is helped by the fact that the art is great on the eyes. ( )

A young man named Peter likes to tell wild stories, which has cost him all of his jobs in the past. Because of this, when he sees a bunch of cats acting like humans, his current employer (Father Allen) does not believe him. It isn't until the King of the Cats dies and Father Allen's own cat, Tom, declares himself the new king that anyone believes him.

This is a very cute and very interesting story that reminded me a little bit of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I loved the humorous way it was written, especially the parts between Tom and Peter where Tom "meowed" and Peter said "Yes, just like that." ( )

This was sort of a boy-cries-wolf kind of story. Peter swears the cats are up to no good and no one will believe him because he is known to tell tall tales. It's very interesting when the tables turn on Father Allen. ( )

(On behalf of my 8 year old: humouress)

I think it was a really good book and it was quite interesting and I would recommend this book to anyone.

It's about a boy who lives with his father behind a church and his father is a priest and he has this great big fault about telling wild stories and one day he sees lights in the church when no-one is supposed to be there and when he looks into the curtain he sees a hundred cats and one great big cat on the steps with a big bishop cat and he finds out that they've been going and doing stuff like ... and the cat who was crowned king died by hitting a rock and the king cat was actually the boy's cat's brother. ( )