written by Genevieve Moore and illustrated by Karin Littlewood, Frances Lincoln Children's Books, paperback, 6.99
Catherine can't talk, she can't walk like her cousin but she listens very hard, and hardly anyone does that! Her family understands all the little things that makes Catherine special and this, in turn, makes them feel special too.
The story is based on the author's niece, left profoundly and multiply disabled by a form of epilepsy. In the foreword, children's author Jacqueline Wilson notes, 'It's a delightful happy story', 'warm and sensitive...but gently subversive too' and one that 'belongs on every nursery and infant school bookshelf'.
