[*asterix*]

I recently got an email from a little girl (via her mother) who has been reading my CATS fan fic and would like to read more. I haven't really been reading fan fic for a few years now, though, and most of what I enjoyed when I was reading involved some measure of violence, language, or sexuality which would earn it at least a PG-13 rating, and keep it from being something that I would reccomend for a child. That said, the story she read on my site certainly contains at least a couple graphicly violent situations, so I'm hoping her parents are reading with her such that they can either filter past these parts or explain anything that might raise questions.

With this in mind, can anyone reccomend some fics that they have enjoyed and think would be suitable for a 7 year old? Or even fic compelation sites that would be worthwhile for her and her parent(s) to look through and possibly find something suitable? If only for the reading excercise, I would ask that you also keep in mind the grammatical quality of the writing, the writer's attention to spelling, etc, in the case of specific stories.

It would be very nice to be able to share more stories with this apparently avid young reader

[JellicleCatMew]

Sadly,I cannot think of any kid-friendly CATS fics.In fact,I don't think there are any kid-freindly CATS fics out there..all I've seen are the adult fics.

However,I'm going to have kid-friendly CATS fics on my new website when it goes up on April 21,2006.You can wait till then to check the fics out,if you like.

[Nemi]

Mel, that is DEFINATELY not true. I've read a fair few of kid-safe CATS fics... But I sadly don't have links at hand.

I'll do a good look-over, though, and see if I can't dig up anything...

[QuaxoCoricopat]

Near as I could suggest would be to hit up fanfiction.net . In their "Misc." section they have an entire sub-section devoted to Cats (both feline and musical (You could venture into the Musical/Play section, but that tends to have some of the more risque stuff since its a combined RENT and Wicked section...)). I know most people can't stand FF.net, but they're pretty good about being kid friendly with their K-M rating and filter system (much like vid. games). There's four pages of fic there currently for K-K+, of varying quality, but plenty of reading material for a young one. If the reader is a little older they could probably venture into the teen section too...

[enkeli-kitten]

I'm sure there's Cats fanfiction ok for kids out there. I'vewritten a few myself which I'm sure would be ok for a 7-year-old. My fanfics tend to skip around dark topics, me not knowing much about them except what I've read in books! I'll have to give you the links tomorrow because I don't have time tonight.

[Flitterbug]

Look for fiction written by first-time or young authors. Always female.

That's your most likely bet for "child-safe" stories.

[Stargazer]

If she wants CATS fanfics that are suitable for kids here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/l/2405/1/0/1/1/0/0/0/0/0/1/

I went to fanfiction.net, went to Misc, went to Cats then when to the rating of K If she likes any other things and wants fanfics for them just have her go to fanfiction.net and make sure the rating is K They should be suitable for young kids because of the rating.

[*asterix*]

I'm taking a look around ff.net, to see if there's anything specific to point out, but I think passing along the misc > cats link + the note of exploring other topics so long as they are rated "K" should work.

Thanks very much for your thoughts on the matter, guys

[enkeli-kitten]

I found one of mine!! You can read it here, if you want to, I'm really sorry to clog up a thread like this but I haven't put it online elsewhere yet. It involves original character kittens, but it shouldn't be any more confusing than a usual fic, I think! (I hope...) Felina is me, Mitsuki, Jeniiva and Jemeter are some role-play friends.



THE RECORD PLAYER


“What do you think? Should we do it?” Mitsuki stared longingly at Aoide’s record player.
“I don’t know!” Felina shrugged helplessly. “If we break it, she’ll be really mad at us!”
“Yeah. But we won’t break it, right? We’ll be really careful!” Mitsuki replied. “Besides, we need some music to dance to, and the record player is the only thing round here which plays music.”
“I guess so…” Felina said doubtfully. She looked at the sky – the sun was just setting, but most of the Cats wouldn’t be here until full dark. “I don’t think she’d mind too much as long as it didn’t get hurt.” She tried to reassure herself.
“So. Let’s just turn it on.” Mitsuki said bravely, but she didn’t move.
“Ok.” Felina agreed. “You do it.”
“No, you!”
“You!” Felina tried not to giggle.
“It was your idea!” Mitsuki pointed out. Felina sighed.
“Ok then. But no running away if it blows up in my face!” She warned, and crept over to the innocent-looking record player. Aoide had just polished it clean of smuts and smears last night, and it shone brightly, reflecting the colours of the sunset. Carefully Felina extended one claw and pressed down the ‘Play’ button, leaping backwards as if she expected it to jump up and bite her. However, nothing happened, except that the speakers crackled a bit.
“Did it work?” Mitsuki asked nervously.
“Umm…” Felina started to reply, but was cut off as music filled the air.
“Yay!” Mitsuki grinned happily, and the two kittens began to dance in the wide space cleared in the centre of the Junkyard.
They had got halfway through the first song when a loud BANG echoed through the yard, making them jump. The music stopped abruptly. Horror-stricken, Mitsuki and Felina turned towards the record player.
“Oh NO!” Felina wailed. Sure enough, the player had exploded. Smoke was pouring out the top and sparks were still fizzing on the once-shiny surface, leaving little burn marks. On either side of the record player cowered two kittens, covered in smuts.
“Jeniiva! Jemeter!” Mitsuki cried. “What did you do?” The two kittens, one golden, one patchy in many colours, lifted blackened faces to Mitsuki and Felina. Jeniiva scrambled to her feet.
“’T’wasn’t us! Promise!!” She said, giving Jemeter a hand to her feet.
“We were just walking past, to come join you, and BANG! The thing exploded!” Jemeter agreed, backing nervously away from the record player.
“Aoide’s going to kill us!” Felina moaned. Mitsuki hid her face in her paws.
“What are we going to DO?” She wailed. “I can’t believe it broke! We didn’t do anything to it!” Jemeter and Jeniiva looked at each other nervously.
“Admetus will tell us off!” Jemeter sighed. “He’s so close with Aoide, he gets mad when anything bad happens to her.”
“Maybe we better hide until she isn’t so angry…” Jeniiva suggested.
“Good idea!” Felina agreed. “Maybe she’ll just think it got blown up by itself.” Mitsuki took her paws away from her face.
“But, shouldn’t we tell her? She loves the record player, you know. She’ll be so sad that it’s broken.” Mitsuki’s voice trembled a little.
“But it won’t help if she thinks we did it.” Felina tried to persuade her friend. “You know what that thing’s like. It breaks all the time. She might be able to fix it…” But looking at the charred wreck of the record player, Felina doubted it.
“Let’s go!” Jemeter pleaded. “I don’t want to be told off…we didn’t even do it, so it isn’t fair!” She brushed soot away from her face with her paws.
“Ok.” Mitsuki agreed. “Let’s just go until it’s been dark for a while. Then when we come back, we can try help her fix it.” She felt guilty for what had happened, even though it wasn’t really her fault.
“Come on!” Jeniiva cried, and the four kittens scampered out of the Junkyard and into the streets of London.

Jeniiva giggled nervously.
“We made it!” She grinned as they trotted down a quiet street. Jemeter sighed.
“Thank the Everlasting Cat!” She exclaimed. “I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of Admetus in a bad mood.” She spotted a shiny lolly-wrapper and pounced. Jeniiva leapt sideways in surprise, then attacked the wrapper.
“It’s dying!” She shrieked as she and Jemeter chased it down into the gutter. It landed in the small stream of water, and they raced it down the street until it dropped unexpectedly into a drain. Felina giggled at the disappointment on their faces.
“Come on! There’s plenty of rubbish around! Let’s see who can catch the biggest and shiniest!” She challenged, and soon they were all racing down the street, chasing after glossy wrappers that fluttered in the gusty wind.

Mitsuki made her biggest leap yet, trapping a large ice-block wrapper between her front paws.
“I got it!” She shrieked happily, waving it at the others. “I bet this one is the biggest!” Jeniiva and Felina rushed over to compare their catches, but Jemeter had dropped hers in surprise.
“Look!” She called to the others. “We’ve come all the way to the Park!” The other three kittens looked up from the wrappers. Sure enough, they stood on the edge of a huge expanse of smooth grass. Trees grew in planted rows around the edges, and there were posts stuck in the ground for some human game.
“The park isn’t safe,” Jeniiva remembered, distracted momentarily from her empty chip packet. “Munkustrap says that humans walk their Pollicles here.” Jemeter ran over, the rising wind ruffling her golden fur.
“Maybe we should go back now,” She suggested, but Jeniiva interrupted with a yelp as the gust of wind snatched her packet away from between her paws, blowing it out into the Park.
“It was the biggest!” She screeched, darting after it at top speed. The others shrieked with laughter and followed her, all thought of danger forgotten.
“No it wasn’t! Mine was!” Felina yelled as she spurted to catch up, her packet of liquorice allsorts falling from her mouth as she called and nearly tripping her up. Finally Jeniiva managed to catch her wrapper, and the others caught up. They were right in the middle of the Park, but now they were preoccupied with measuring their wrappers without them blowing away again.
“I think Mitsuki’s is shiniest,” Jemeter remarked. “And Jeniiva’s is bigger.”
“Mine’s back there.” Felina sighed, pointing across the Park. She had abandoned her liquorice packet after slipping on it twice. “I guess you guys both won, and me and Jeme lost!” She sighed dramatically at Jemeter, who giggled as Mitsuki and Jeniiva cheered happily, waving their big, shiny wrappers in the air.
Suddenly, all four kittens stopped moving, crouching down into the grass in fear. They all heard the same thing - a terrible loud barking sound. It filled the air around them, and to their horror they saw a massive Pollicle running straight at them. Each bark showed a drooling mouth full of pointed teeth, and it was coming closer every second.
“RUN!” Mitsuki screamed, and they scattered, running for their lives towards the trees at the edge of the Park.

Felina and Jemeter headed towards the fence, hearing the barking recede behind them. Terror still controlling their movements, they shot under a fence and scattered into the darkening streets. Jemeter didn’t stop running until she couldn’t hear anything but the frantic gasp of her own breathing. Only then did she slow down and look around. The Pollicle was nowhere in sight…but where was she?
“Felina…?” Jemeter called, frightened. She was all alone in a blind alley.

“It’s chasing us!” Jeniiva screamed to Mitsuki as they pelted across the grass towards the hedge. Mitsuki glanced over her shoulder. The Pollicle was much bigger than them, and it was gaining on them easily.
“Just run faster!” She cried back. If they could make it to the hedge before the Pollicle caught them, they would be safe. There was no way it could squeeze through after them. There was a small slope before the hedge, and the kittens tore down it at a speed they didn’t even know they could run before. They were so close! The hedge was just meters away…Jeniiva squealed as the Pollicle’s jaws snapped inches away from her tail. She took a flying leap for the hedge, and slashed her way through the twigs at the bottom, emerging into the street on the other side. Next to her, Mitsuki did the same. They skidded to a halt on the pavement and looked back fearfully. Sure enough, the Pollicle was trapped behind the tall hedge, still barking. Trembling, the two kittens couldn’t help giggling as they heard a whistle, and the dog turned to run towards the sound.
“Stupid Pollicles. They’ll answer to any human who calls!” Jeniiva said a little shakily. Mitsuki picked out a twig that had lodged itself in Jeniiva’s fur.
“It wanted to eat us.” She shuddered. Jeniiva winced.
“Let’s go home now,” She suggested. She had had enough adventure for one day, and it was nearly dark. Mitsuki nodded, then a thought struck her.
“Wait! What about Felina and Jemeter? We can’t leave them!” She realised. “Did you see which way they went?” Jeniiva shook her head.
“We have to find them,” She agreed. “Where shall we look?”
“Let’s try all the streets that lead away from the park. Then we’ll head towards the Junkyard. They might have run home.” Sticking close together, they set off down the nearest street, checking in all the shadows as they moved down it.

Jemeter kept close to the wall as she stumbled down yet another dark alley. She didn’t have a clue where she was, and she couldn’t help thinking of what the adults had told her about the dangers of humans and their machines, and she remembered the ghost stories the older kittens loved. She froze, sure she had heard something. The wind howled around the chimneys of the houses, creating eerie wails. With a cry of fear, Jemeter bolted down the alley. She didn’t know where she was going, but anything was better than staying there! She turned a corner, and screamed. She had come face to face pair of golden, glowing eyes! Cowering backwards, she screamed again, until she realised that she wasn’t the only one screaming. The owner of the eyes was shrieking too, in a high-pitched, kittenish voice.
“Felina!” Jemeter cried, relief making her legs quiver. Felina stopped screaming at the sound of her name.
“Jemeter?” She asked shakily. Jemeter rushed to hug her. “Thank Heaviside I found you!” Felina sighed, nuzzling her friend.
“How do you know it wasn’t me that found you?” Jemeter grinned. The street she had turned into was wider and lit with lamps, and it was much less scary now that Felina was with her. Felina shrugged.
“I was looking for you,” She said. “Let’s go home. We aren’t allowed to be out at night.”
“Good idea!” Jemeter agreed fervently. “Do you think Jeniiva and Mitsuki are ok?”
“Yeah,” Felina said. “They must have escaped the Pollicle. They probably ran home.”
“Then we’ll go home too.” Jemeter agreed. She looked around. The street was unfamiliar. “Er…do you know which way?” She asked hopefully. Felina suddenly looked nervous.
“No.”

“Listen! Did you hear that?” Mitsuki whispered, holding up her paw. Jeniiva stopped and listened.
“Paws!” She exclaimed, pointing towards the end of the street. Sure enough, the sound of a cat’s paws pattered across the end of the street, followed by a triumphant shout.
“Gotcha!”
Mitsuki and Jeniiva giggled as they recognised the voice.
“Admetus!” They said at the same time, running down the street to where the tom had obviously been hunting.
“He’ll know what to do!” Jeniiva said happily. “Hey, Admetus!” She called. Admetus looked up sharply, relaxing as he spotted the two kittens running towards him.
“Admetus, you have to help us! Felina and Jemeter are lost somewhere around here and we can’t find them!” Mitsuki cried. Admetus leapt to meet them.
“Why aren’t you in the Junkyard?” He asked. “You should be by now. It’s dark already.” Jeniiva began to gabble an explanation.
“Well, you see, it wasn’t our fault really, it just exploded on it’s own - OW!” She was cut off as Mitsuki stamped on her paw.
“Hide-and-seek!” She said loudly, staring meaningfully at Jeniiva. “We were playing hide-and-seek and we lost track of the time. Right, Niiva?” Jeniiva nodded, rubbing her paw. She had forgotten that Admetus would be angry with them for breaking the record player. Admetus looked puzzled, but accepted Mitsuki’s explanation.
“Ok, we better find Felina and Jemeter then, and take you back to the Junkyard. TUMBLEBRUTUS!” He yelled the other cat’s name loudly. “We were hunting together,” He told them. Mitsuki and Jeniiva nodded gladly. The more cats there were looking, the better! Then Tumblebrutus came running around the end of the street.
“What?” He asked Admetus, glancing confusedly at Jeniiva and Mitsuki. “What are you two doing out?” Admetus sighed.
“They were playing, and they’ve lost Felina and Jemeter.” He explained. Tumble grinned, remembering how many times he had been told off as a kitten for straying out of the Junkyard.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find them,” He reassured the kittens. “We better split up,” He said to Admetus. “That way it will be quicker.” He looked at Mitsuki, who was standing closest to him. “You come with me, and Niiva can go with Admetus.”
“Hide-and-seek! Remember!” Mitsuki whispered to Jeniiva as they split up to search.

Mitsuki stayed close by Tumble’s side as they trotted down the edge of a street. This one was quite dirty and there was plenty of litter blowing around, but for once Mitsuki wasn’t tempted to chase it. She couldn’t help feeling guilty for blowing up Aoide’s record player. She imagined Aoide’s reaction and Admetus’s anger, and sighed unhappily. Tumble looked at her.
“What’s the matter?” He asked. “Don’t worry about Felina and Jemeter. I’m sure they’re fine. They’re both capable of looking after themselves.” Mitsuki looked down.
“It’s not that…though I am worried about the others, of course. Tumble…” She looked at him hopefully. “If I tell you something, will you promise to keep it secret?” Tumble shrugged.
“Sure. I can keep a secret. What’s up?”
“Well…” Mitsuki took a deep breath and began to speak rapidly. “We blew up Aoide’s record player she told us not to touch it but we really wanted to dance and there’s nothing else that makes music and we turned it on and it was playing fine but then it suddenly exploded and we didn’t bump it or anything it just happened and we thought Aoide would be mad at us and Admetus would be too so we ran away until they weren’t so angry but then we got chased by a Pollicle and we got split up and then...” She ran completely out of breath, and looked anxiously at Tumblebrutus, hoping he wouldn’t be angry. Tumble was staring at her, and as she came to the end of the long, rather gabbled sentence he began to laugh.
“You ran away because you blew up her record player!” He grinned to himself. “Nice one, kit! But don’t worry about it. Aoide fixed that thing every time it exploded before. I don’t see why it should be totally broken this time.”
“Really?” Mitsuki felt better for telling someone.
“Yeah. Besides, it would have happened the same way if Aoide had turned it on, since you didn’t bump it.”
“I guess so…” Mitsuki smiled a little, happy that Tumble wasn’t telling her off. Most other adults would have said she shouldn’t have touched it anyway. Then Tumble stopped abruptly, staring down a shadowy alleyway that turned off from the main street they were on.
“I think I caught Felina’s scent…” He said, sniffing the air cautiously. Mitsuki eyed the dark, narrow lane warily.
“Do we have do go down there?” She asked.
“Yeah, I think I’ve got her scent. Don’t be scared, I’m with you!” He grinned, and she smiled back.
“Ok,” She agreed, keeping close as they entered the alleyway.

“You should have seen it!” Jeniiva flung her front paws as wide as they would go. “It was as big as TEN cats the size of Old Deuteronomy, and it’s teeth were as long as me!” She described the Pollicle to Admetus, who could hardly believe his ears at the amazing tale Jeniiva was spinning. “We started to run away, but I wasn’t scared! It was really close behind us, so I turned around and HISSED at it, like this!” She bared her teeth and hissed forcefully at Admetus, who jumped. “And it was so scared that it tried to dig itself into the ground to get away from me!” She grinned proudly, puffing up her fur importantly. “And I just walked away, I did, because I didn’t care about that silly old thing. But I gave him a scratch for scaring the others!” She pranced down the street ahead of him, demonstrating the proud way she walked. Admetus bit his lip as he tried not to laugh at her walk, wondering whether to believe her.
“That sounds pretty brave,” He agreed. “But that Pollicle can’t be as scary as Macavity!” He ran to catch up with her. “I once scared Macavity away from the Junkyard! It was a Jellicle Ball, and as usual he had come to gatecrash…he tried to take Aoide away, but I didn’t let him!” He bragged.
“Wow!” Jeniiva breathed. She had heard this tale before, of course, but she loved stories. Besides, when Admetus told, it got more exciting and dangerous each time! They wandered down the street together, slightly distracted from their task as they tried to outdo each other with tales of heroism.

“And then Firefrorefiddle leapt out at them with his eyes blazing red!” Jemeter said, her voice shaking. “And he towered above them, dressed completely in black and then he blasted them with his eyes and they died!” She finished. Felina managed not to cry.
“He doesn’t live here, right? He lives on the fells,” She tried to stop herself being scared. Jemeter shivered as she heard the wind make another weird noise around the rooftops. They were completely lost, and were now wandering aimlessly in the dark.
“Yes,” She agreed. “But Bombalurina said that sometimes, if he doesn’t have enough prey, he comes to the towns to grab kittens that have wandered away from home!” Her voice rose into a terrified squeak. Felina looked around anxiously.
“It’s alright though,” Her voice was also a few octaves higher than normal. “He’s not here! It’s only a ghost story!” She tried to convince herself and Jemeter. There was a short silence as the two kittens looked at each other, and then they heard it. An echoing call…and it was calling their names! Felina and Jemeter screamed.
“GHOSTS!”

“Feliiiiina! Jemeeeeeeter!” Mitsuki called. “I hope we find them soon,” She said to Tumble, who was looking worried. He had expected to find the missing kittens by now, but the scent he was following was complicated and wandering, sometimes even doubling back on itself. Then, they heard a scream.
“That’s them!” Tumble gasped. “This way! Hurry!” They rushed in the direction of the scream. Soon they could hear crying, and then to their relief Felina and Jemeter rushed towards them out of the shadows.
“They’re gonna get us!” Jemeter sobbed, burying her face in Tumble’s fur.
“Who is?” Tumble asked, looking around anxiously.
“The ghosts!” Felina cried. “We heard them!” Mitsuki put her arm round her.
“It’s ok,” She said. “We were calling for you. Maybe that’s what you heard.”
“You’re safe now,” Tumble told them. “We’ll just meet up with Admetus and Jeniiva, and then we’ll go back to the Junkyard.”
“Look! There they are!” Mitsuki pointed. Admetus and Jeniiva were walking towards them. The two were busy arguing about something and hadn’t noticed them.
“Hey! Admetus!” Tumble called. Admetus looked up in surprise as he heard his name. He had been arguing with Jeniiva whether Munkustrap had defeated Macavity seven times or eight, and had lost track of what they were supposed to be doing.
“Oh! Hi Tumble!” He replied as they met.
“You found them!” Jeniiva exclaimed happily, rushing to hug Jemeter and Felina, who hugged back happily.
“Can we go home now?” Jemeter asked hopefully.
“Does anyone know the way?” Mitsuki asked. “I don’t!”
“I do!” Tumble announced. “Follow me!”

“You are in big trouble.” Vedra declared as she saw the group come into the Junkyard. “Aoide’s looking for you. She doesn’t look very happy!” Admetus looked puzzled.
“Why isn’t she happy?” He asked. Divinica, who was sitting beside Vedra on the tyre, slid down to explain.
“Leithleah said she saw Niiva, Fi, Jeme and Mitsu blow up her record player.” She said, grinning at the four horror-stricken kittens behind Admetus. Tumble was nowhere in sight, having run away laughing as soon as Vedra had made that statement.
“Uh-oh.” Mitsuki and Jeniiva tried not to giggle nervously.
“Guys…” Jemeter whispered. “Let’s go to hide in the tunnel!”
“Good idea!” Felina agreed, and they sneaked away as Vedra and Divinica explained to Admetus what had happened.

Safe in the tunnel, the four kittens began to discuss what to do.
“Do you think she’ll find us?” Jeniiva asked them all.
“She’s bound to, eventually.” Mitsuki was resigned to their fate.
“Let’s just say it was an accident,” Felina suggested.
“It WAS an accident!” Jemeter reminded them. “I wonder why it did explode…we never touched it, after all.”
Mitsuki had an idea. “Do you think Mistoffelees zapped it for a joke?” Felina giggled.
“He’s always doing things like that!”
“We’ll say it was Misto!”

Right on top of the tallest pile of rubbish in the Junkyard, Mistoffelees sat thinking. What was the best way to levitate Bustopher Jones? He’d need quite a bit of power, definitely…
His contemplation was interrupted by a call from below. It was not a happy call. Misto looked down and saw Aoide glaring at him.
“Misto! Come down!” She yelled. Misto sighed as he obediently began his descent. What had he done this time?