The Tower Bridge Cat
by Tee Dobinson & Steve Cox

Bella is a Bridge Master’s cat who lives at a very famous location – Tower Bridge! Today she is very excited as it’s the Queen’s birthday and the Royal Barge will be passing through. Everyone around her is preparing for a big celebration and it’s Bella’s job to make sure everything is on track.

As she visits each member of the team we get a lovely insight in to the inner workings of the bridge. We meet Stan the Stoker, Eddy the Engineer, Olly the Oiler and Hannah the Cook, each of whom has a special role to play in the festivities.

Finally everything is ready and Bella sits down to watch for the Royal Barge. As the Queen nears the bridge the bascules start to rise but Bella spots a problem. The traffic lights are green and there’s a double decker bus heading right towards the big gap at the centre of the bridge!

Bella races towards the bus and hops on just in time to give the driver some instructions. On Bella’s cue, Babs the Bus Driver puts her foot on the accelerator and flies the bus right over to the other side! The passengers are safe but they’re very sad because they can’t reach their destination on a broken bus. They had been heading to a party to celebrate the Queen’s birthday but now they are stuck. Can Bella save the day a second time?

Ivy adores this exciting story and we have spent a lot of time poring over the vintage-style illustrations. She has been fascinated by Tower Bridge since the first time we visited it together so was amazed to discover that parts of the tale are actually based on true events. In 1952 a double decker bus really did jump across the bridge carrying a full load of passengers!

I have to admit that this book gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling when I first read it with Ivy. It was published in 2018 and we’ve only had it a few weeks but it somehow feels like an old, familiar friend. I am looking forward to lots of snuggly winter evenings reading it with my girl (and the sequel The Tower Bridge Cat and the Baby Whale).

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Disclosure: The publisher provided us a with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.