Belinda Moss

Department head, Lilliput Campus, Table View Primary. Teacher and author.

Hi, my name is Belinda Moss. I have loved cats since moments after birth and have not spent a single year on this earth without a fur baby or two.

I have been a teacher for the past 36 years. Working with small children, I have had the privilege of submersing myself in the world of fantasy, imagination and magic. I have always loved reading and telling stories.

During Covid a very close friend and I started what would become the first of our stories, Tom and His Little Red Scooter, realising a childhood dream.

Belinda Moss, smiling, with a cat painted beside one eye — Meet the author: Belinda Moss

How the four books came to life

Some of the children in Belinda's classroom find reading hard. The stories about the cats were the ones they asked for again, so she wrote them down, and Tayla Jade Williams drew them in coloured pencil. Christine Schickerling translated Princess Blu into Afrikaans.

Every book is printed on cream paper with wide spacing, and every book has a narrated version behind the QR code inside the cover, so a child can hear the whole story while following the words.

What the cream paper does, and what it does not

The type, spacing and cream paper follow the British Dyslexia Association's guidance.

The claim standard, in one paragraph

Controlled studies have not found that special typefaces make dyslexic readers faster or more accurate. What does help, according to the research, is larger type, wider spacing, a calm off-white page, short lines, and choice. So the books and this site use those, and offer a choice of fonts under Reading settings for readers who prefer one. The read-along audio is there because hearing the story while following the words can support enjoyment, confidence and comprehension for learners who find reading hard. None of this is a treatment, and nothing here claims to be.

The four cats

Jazzy

The ginger one. First to the food bowl, last to come in at night.

Blu, fluffy white with grey and ginger patches — Blu.

Blu as drawn for the badge: a fluffy white cat with grey and ginger patches on her head

Blu

The fluffy one. Found under a hedge as a kitten; now the princess of the house.

Tom, black tuxedo with a red bow tie — Tom.

Tom as drawn for the badge: a black and white tuxedo cat with a red bow tie

Tom

The tuxedo cat with the red bow tie. His scooter is red too.

Indigo Gray

Indy. Small and quiet, with fur as soft as clouds and eyes the colour of warm honey.