Our Year 4 readers have made a fantastic start to our class novel, Varjak Paw by SF Said! We have just finished Chapter 6, and the children are completely hooked on Varjak's adventure.

Here is what has happened in our story so far:

• Meet the Paws: We met Varjak, a young Mesopotamian Blue kitten with glowing amber eyes, who lives high up in the Contessa's grand house with his family.

• An Unwelcome Visitor: Everything changes when a mysterious Gentleman arrives with two silent, sinister black cats. The Contessa suddenly disappears, and the Gentleman takes over the house!

• A Warning from the Past: Varjak's grandfather, the Elder Paw, warns the family about the danger. He shares the secret tales of Jalal—their legendary ancestor—and tells Varjak he must escape the house to find a dog to help them.

• The Brave Escape: After a heartbreaking moment where the Elder Paw protects Varjak from the Gentleman’s cats, Varjak makes a daring leap over the high wall into the unknown, dangerous city.

The children have been working on their retrieval and inference skills, analysing character motives, and identifying expanded noun phrases in our writing lessons.