This cozy, childish dream of frivolous time-tripping begins drearily enough when Louise, an orphan who's been raised in a...

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CAT'S MAGIC

This cozy, childish dream of frivolous time-tripping begins drearily enough when Louise, an orphan who's been raised in a boarding school until her mother's money ran out, is sent off to live on a small farm with stern old Aunt Harriet. But the dragon aunt proves human, and shows it first by allowing Louise to keep a kitten marked for disposal. Because of the kitten (an old Egyptian type) Harriet is visited by an ancient goddess who gives her the ability to travel in time and space--and so, after a couple of warm-up side trips, begins Louise's involvement in an 1862 boarding house abustle with petty skulduggery. Before the wicked boarding-house proprietors are routed and the innocent saved, there is much hopping back and forth, with Aunt Harriet and Louise's new friend Charlie coming along; and there is some reshuffling at the end when Harriet decides to stay in 1862 and run the boarding house, while two from the other time--Flora, a girl Louise's age but actually her great-great-great aunt, and Flora's kindly Aunt Daisy--return with Louise and Charlie to run the farm. Harmless but silly, and without the style that makes a dalliance with Victorian melodrama sparkle.

Pub Date: March 25, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1981

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