Taken in by a family with young children, the kitten Oliver soon becomes the favorite companion of teenage daughter Lucy. Narrating the events of that first year in the form of a diary, Oliver recounts his increasingly intrepid exploits as a hunter, a shredder of cushions, a connoisseur of fish proffered by a friendly chef. The reader watches with growing interest as Oliver stalks a mouse in the attic, gets trapped in the cupboard for several days, foils an attempted the , and wonders what the point of a gerbil is. Yet much of the joy of this "diary" comes from the glimpses it offers into the lives of a fraught but loving family as they read, feast, fight, and manage a mysterious new sickness. Oliver's commentary cleverly turns the human world on its head; you will never look at a watch or a smartphone the same way again. (BH)