Books in Colour Young Puffins series

Laurence Higgins, an enormously fat black cat, has breakfast with Mrs Higgins, lunch with the Normans, tea with old Mr Mason and supper with the Barclay-Lloyds. None of them know why he is so fat on just one meal a day! Lawrence is happy until he finds the walking from house to house tiring and begins to get indigestion. His friends tell him to lose weight if he wants a girl friend so he begins to spend one day in four with all his owners. He gets thinner but the cat he fancies down the road tells him she doesn't like slim boys - she's lost her heart to an enormously fat black cat she used to see up the road! Triumphantly Lawrence returns to his four meals a day, spurred on by the thought of meeting Bella when he's back to his normal size.

It's the first day at PIRATE SCHOOL for Ziggy, Smudge, Carkella and Flo and they have lots of new things to contend with. Their headteacher is the scary Patagonia Clasterbotton and they have to take lessons include walking the plank and hand-to-hand fighting. When out on the pirate ship a storm blows up, resulting in the children having to rescue Patagonia when she's swept overboard, and they learn that really Patagonia is not so scary after all!

The third very funny story about the children at pirate school. The children hide a stray dog on board, while Patagonia Clatterbottom, the head teacher, is plagued by school inspectors, who are not impressed by the lessons. So, the children decide to sail the school away. The inspectors give chase, but the children fire on their boat and take it over - full marks for the lessons they have learnt about being pirates. And they're allowed to keep the dog!