This delightful and fun children's book by Wendy Unsworth tells the story of Kellie Culpepper, who comes from a long line of explorers, with her parents being 'the greatest explorers of them all!' They are preparing to set out on their latest adventure, and Kellie cannot go with them this time. Instead she is due to stay with one of her Aunts, who has a very fitting name. However, this particular Aunt has a propensity to be a little bit silly, and things don't go as planned, so Kellie instead discovers she has an Aunt named Kitty, who is 'unusual and very, very interesting'. Aunt Kitty lives at Come-alive Cottage, a lovely house in the countryside. Kitty is unlike any Aunt you might have met before; she is quite magical in fact, as is her special home, where strange, unexpected and wonderful things happen. Kellie is in for quite an adventure at Come-alive Cottage!
Told in eight short chapters, this is a really enjoyable book, a sweet story that would be ideal to read aloud; the author has used some lovely phrases to build her story, and I was excited every time another 'whoosh!' occurred! I loved the affectionate names Kellie's father had for her, such as his 'Little Butternut Squash.'
The illustrations by Frances Lee West are great fun too and fit so nicely alongside the text; it feels as though some care and thought has gone into the placement of the illustrations, and they really embellish the story very nicely, and include some clever plays on words.
A lovely book that is great fun to read, telling a magical, well written tale with great illustrations.
Source - author review copy in exchange for an honest review
Self-published - available in paperback and as an e-book
The second book in this series, Danger at Come-alive Cottage, is available now too.
