I recently learned through a blog about the book, My Goldfish Ate My Cat! and decided to purchase the book using Paypal from their Website. The author is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and is 11 years old. He also has a blue belt in Karate and cares about the environment. Alexandre Beaulieu Lynch lives in Alberta, Canada with his Mom, younger brother David, as well as his dog Bo.

This is a children's soft cover book consisting of twenty pages. Alexandre even signed the inside cover on our book that arrived today in Los Angeles straight from Canada. There are several options at the site to pay, depending on if you are located in Canada, United States or Internationally. Paypal took care of the conversion with the total cost including shipping at $13.45. I received the book in under a week. This is fast service.




I wanted my thirteen year old son who is considered high functioning to peruse the book as well. He is a cat lover and enjoys drawing and making his own books, although they are still sitting in their notebooks and not being published like others strive to do.




I let Nicholas read through the book first upon arrival and soon after he was scouring his notebooks and folders for his stories to share with me and consider how much money he could sell them for. He now has dreams of selling on ebay.

The text is done in a larger font that is bold and easy to read. I prefer this style over other ones I have come across in books. The illustrations are by Carole Tavernier and edited by Janet Gelernter. At first Nicholas thought the story was weird and highly un-natural. He says usually the food chain between cats and fish is the other way around, so it was hard for him to comprehend this scenario.

My Goldfish Ate My Cat! starts off with the narrator observing in astonishment his cat being consumed by his fish. This started because he forgot to give his fish a snack that morning. Amazingly the fish jumped out of his bowl and crawled under the door to get out of the room. His Mother fainted due to seeing this sight as she stepped out into the hallway.

There is a cute illustration depicting the red-orange fish sliding down the railing. Nick thinks it looks like a Japanese fighting fish. The fish made it to the kitchen with the brother of the author (narrator) observing the antics of the fish as he grabbed the salt and pepper before going back to the bedroom upstairs. This whole process took under a minute.

The brother went under the bed to watch and found the cat there as well. The cat snuck over to the fish bowl where the fish returned to and was about to reach in when the fish spoke to the cat. The fish tricked the cat into putting the salt and pepper on its paw and dipping into the bowl for a rinse.

At this point the fish ate the paw of the cat until he got the whole cat inside and grew very large. The bowl burst and broke with the fish coughing up a hairball. The funny ending had the brother wanting to eat the fish for his meal.

The illustration for the cat's arm stuck in the mouth of the fish is quite amusing, as is the hairball in midair. The colors are mostly browns, blue and greens for the clothing and background. The cat is yellow.

I thought it was very imaginative and creative, although having the fish take a bite out of the paw would sound more feasible. I was a bit confused at first since the first sentence of the book states, "I couldn't believe it when my goldfish ate my cat!" The book goes on to explain how that happened with this being the end result.

This part might be difficult for smaller children to grasp since it tells you the ending at the beginning and then describes how that took place. But the title of the book pretty much gives the ending away. It is a silly book that would be fun for a family to read or classroom or library reading to small kids who like amusing tales.

There is no recommended age level for My Golfish Ate My Cat! but I would suggest four to preteen is suitable. To purchase the book at $9.95 plus postage - www.omegabt.com

The site also has links to watch and listen to Alexandre's first radio and television interviews and read his newspaper articles.

Another book that Nicholas helped review - Sundays with Matthew

Educational Autism Tips for Families 71 page resourceful ebook for families entering the school system with a recent autism diagnosis. Find out what issues take place over the course of a school day and meet these challenges head on.