The Silver Tabby by Rachael Higgins is a children’s short story about a family of four kittens. There are three boys with black fur just like their Mama, and the fourth kitten is a gray stripe named Silver. She is smaller than her brothers (Shadow, Sooty, and Smoky) and she tries hard to keep up, but the boys don’t let her play with them. Then Silver is playing by herself one day, chasing a butterfly, and she falls into a deep pit filled with black rocks. She meows for help, but no one comes. After she saves herself, she catches a glimpse of her reflection in a pond. Silver’s coat has been turned black by the rocks from the pit. Will the black kittens want to play with her now that she looks just like them?

This is a fantastic story that I simply enjoyed. I love cats and I enjoyed reading about Silver and her family. My favorite part of the book were the pictures which were watercolor illustrations by Grace Elliott. They depicted scenes from the story beautifully and elegantly. A couple of the drawings at the beginning of the book were humorous, showing only the black cats’ rear ends as they left poor little Silver behind.

This book provides a message of hope and encouragement to children who are feeling lonely and isolated. The moral of The Silver Tabby is that it is alright to be different from other people. I didn’t like that the boys only welcomed Silver when she looked like them, but such is life. This is a tough lessons for many children to learn today. The boys excluded her when she was different, but in the end the boys still wanted to play with her even after finding out that she was actually Silver.

This story contains life lessons told through beautiful illustrations that is perfect for a parent to read to a child so that they can discuss the difficulties that Silver faces.

Pages: 26 | ISBN: 1797694057