“Tim Cummings manages to couple the writing of an angel with the imagination of the devil. Alice the Cat slinked inside me, furtively, magnificently. My heart ached for Tess—so much loss. My heart thundered for her too—so much sass and courage. My skin crawled with hers. Sometimes I wanted to run screaming. I could not stop reading. This book is nothing short of bliss. Meow!”
– Caroline Thompson, writer of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands

“Alice the Cat is a vibrant, emotional tale filled with love, friendship, and mysteries.
A triumphant story of survival in the face of grief and loss.”
– Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King and In The Wild Light.

Becoming a teenager is a notoriously tumultuous time. Emotions can be hard for anyone to process, especially for teens struggling to understand why they feel the way they do amid grief and trauma. This kind of emotional processing is what author Tim Cummings seeks to represent in his new book, Alice the Cat [May 23, 2023, Fitzroy Books, an imprint of Regal House Publishing].

In the town of Weirville, Tess is on the precipice of her thirteenth birthday, processing the loss of her mother, and attempting to help her father who has become completely detached. Her beloved cat, Alice, has started rushing into the street when cars go by, trying to get run over, pushing Tess to do the only thing she believes may help: run away. This leads her to a local abandoned house where she discovers a ghostly entity that desperately wants a cat to care for in the afterlife, and it has its heart set on Alice. Tess will do whatever it takes to save Alice, help the ghost, and heal her dad, teaming up with unexpected friends, including a boy who has a huge crush on her and a local baseball hero turned pariah. The trio soon realizes that it will take more than magic to survive the summer in one piece....