Carbonel series
Carbonel is a children's book series by
Plot
The plot concerns a girl named Rosemary who buys a broom and a cat from an untidy woman in the marketplace. When the cat starts talking to her she learns that she has encountered a witch, selling up to start a new career. Moreover, the cat, Carbonel, just happens to be King of the Cats, presumed missing by his subjects ever since the witch Mrs. Cantrip abducted him. Unfortunately he cannot return to his throne until the enslavement spell Mrs. Cantrip cast on him is undone, and so Rosemary, together with her friend John, have to learn a little witchcraft and track down Mrs. Cantrip for her, at best ambivalent help.
The first two books are more closely linked than the third. Carbonel has been said to have few real cat characteristics: he is more like
Cats (albeit non-speaking ones) are also central to Sleigh's stand-alone novel No One Must Know (1962), about children hiding a cat and her kittens from a landlord who has banned pets.[3]
Another novel of Sleigh's suitable for the age group is The Snowball (1969).
Books
- ISBN 0-14-131973-9(Puffin paperback)
- The Kingdom of Carbonel, ISBN 0-672-50350-6(Bobbs-Merrill hardback)
- Carbonel and Calidor, ISBN 0-7226-5418-9(Kestrel Books hardback)
References
- ^ "Barbara Sleigh" Archived October 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Alienor's Words Page; Deep Purple Cat (ntlworld.com/alienor). Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ Susan Ang, "'Carbonel' Series", The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English (Cambridge: CUP, 2001). Online copy. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
- ^ "Other books by Barbara Sleigh". Alienor's Words Page; Deep Purple Cat (ntlworld.com/alienor). Retrieved 22 October 2015.
External links
- Carbonel series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database