Being Impossible- Hiawyn Oram

So, here goes for one of the most unusual books I have ever read. Being Impossible starts out like many a typical family story- middle child trying to find her place, distant musical genius father, mother absent due to illness of a relative. So Logan feels that the only way she can stand out is to become impossible. So she makes her “impossible” list and begins to put that into place in the hopes that she will find out where she belongs. Her creative energies are poured into the creation of a miniature theatre with which she hopes to catch the eye of a genius boy at school who might be able to help her with the lighting, etc.

Then along comes Tiff, a stray cat- great, some animal therapy thrown in. The new housekeeper is very averse to cats and off it goes to the animal shelter. But here is where it turns weird/interesting/strange. Tiff is a talking cat and yet this doesn’t come across as fantasy in any way. Tiff is simply a cat with unusual abilities and only some people are tuned in to understand her, Logan being one. Logan, of course, rescues Tiff from the home who literally saves the day by improving, through her amazing piano-playing abilities, her father’s generally unpopular music. And the parrot dies and mom comes home and the romance goes nowhere between Logan and Gerald and Tiff eventually goes off to seek someone else who needs her help. Could you suspend your disbelief sufficiently to enjoy this? I did, but only because of the quality of the writing and an amazing ability of the author to make you wonder! I think this would be most suitable for about grades 5-7, but some of your YA students may get a kick out of this as well. I have a few students in mind to recommend this to, so we’ll see what feedback I get from them. I do recommend it for your libraries.