Title: Beverlee Beaz The Brown Burmese

Author: Regan W.H. Macaulay

Illustrator: Alex Zgud

Publisher/Year: Cricket Cottage Publishing/2015

Back Cover Blurb: Beverlee Beaz, the brown Burmese, longs for adventure and has the powerful imagination to make it happen! On a lovely but otherwise ordinary day, she seeks excitement among the forests and fields surrounding her home, where she lets her imagination run wild. The ordinary suddenly becomes extraordinary in the eyes of this little brown cat. Let’s follow Beverlee on her adventure…through the forest, and inside her mind!

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As Beverlee the cat sets off from home on a beautiful sunny day to explore the neighboring countryside, she hasn’t a clue what’s in store for her. She’s eager for adventure and heads to the meadow. She spots a monarch butterfly, and that’s when it happens–her imagination takes over. The butterfly becomes a parrot, then a rabbit becomes a kangaroo. It’s great fun at first, but then the animals she meets begin to transform into more frightening creatures. Can Beverlee control her imagination before her imagination gets her into big trouble?  

Though I now have a dog (whom I adore), I grew up with cats and have a special fondness for them. I remember especially our family cat, Sammy, an orange and white kitty, who loved to explore outside. He’d be away for hours until one of us called him home for supper. (Back then, the issue of indoor cat versus outdoor cat hadn’t taken hold yet.) But what was he doing all that time? Perhaps he was a bit like Beverlee, yearning for adventure, letting his imagination run free, and probably getting himself into trouble. Upon occasion, he did come home sporting battle scars. But the adventurous little tiger lived a good long life.

Beverlee Beaz The Brown Burmese is gorgeously illustrated with lots of color and beautiful, imaginative borders around the pages that have the text. The illustrator also did a fabulous job depicting the overactive imagination of our playful feline star Beverlee Beaz. Overall, the story is fun, the main character is sweet, and the illustrations are lovely–well worth a look!