For me the Victorian setting wasn’t quite as authentic or interesting as the seventeenth-century frost fair was in Frost, but I can see how it’s a good way of introducing kids to what was different in the past: everything from clothing and speech to the severity of illness. Bel has to protect Snow from a threatening dog so the cat can be brought in to visit Charlotte’s sister Lucy, who lies ill with influenza. In this case, Bel goes to play in the snowy garden of her grandmother’s retirement complex and meets a white cat named Snow who belongs to Charlotte, the daughter of the family who owned this manor house 150 years ago. The flat is part of a grand old Victorian house which stands in beautiful gardens, perfect for exploring, but Bel is lonely playing on her own. From best-selling author Holly Webb comes a heart-warming winter tale just in time for Christmas. The mansion is beautiful, but eerie, too with its moving shadows and odd noises.

For a time it’s unclear whether she’s dreaming or really experiencing the history, but at the end there’s some physical token that proves she has been time travelling. The Snow Cat By Holly Webb Published Nov 2016 Christmas is approaching and Bel is staying with Gran in her new flat. Summary From best-selling author Holly Webb comes a heart-warming winter tale just in time for Christmas.Bel feels apprehensive about spending the lead-up to Christmas with her grandma at Lamont House, a sheltered housing complex converted from a grand Victorian home. (3.5) My second from Holly Webb, and while I enjoyed it a lot, if not quite as much as Frost, I probably don’t need to read any more by her now because these two were so similar as to reveal a clear formula: a young girl of about nine years old who plays alone (because she’s an only child or left out of her siblings’ games) goes for an outdoor adventure and meets a cute animal who leads her back into the past.

The Snow Cat by Holly Webb