Chester and Jeff
A Purr-fect Good News Story!
For everyone, the first lockdown in the UK in March 2020 was a time of uncertainty, anxiousness and change. Never more had it been so important to focus on the positive things and for everyone to try and create a happy home environment, particularly for children.
In Risca, South Wales, one way that Joseph Smith (age 7) would distract himself from missing his friends and wider family would be to tell stories all about what he imagined his two pet cats, Chester and Jeff, would get up to at night when he and his family were asleep.
Joseph would spend hours with his Mum and Dad, talking about these imagined cat adventures and laughing about all the things he thought they would get up to. With help from his Mum, Joseph started writing down these stories which created an enjoyable project for the whole household to focus on during a time when everything else was so uncertain.
As Joseph and his family had so much fun creating these stories, they decided that they wanted to share this positivity with other families by putting them in a book, in the hope that it would bring others as much joy as them in these difficult times.
After finding an illustrator, Mariia Luzina, who captured the two cats brilliantly with vibrant colours, the book was finally printed and brought to life. Joseph’s Dad helped set up a website so Joseph could tell the world about his book and make it available for people to buy and share the cat adventures with their families.
Alongside the book, “The Amazing Night-Time Adventures of Chester and Jeff”, Joseph brought his cat adventures to life by taking daily photos of his pets and asking his mum to upload them on their own cat Instagram account so he could brighten someone’s day with the funny pictures.
So far the Chester and Jeff Instagram account has nearly 800 followers and Joseph is already imagining what adventures they will get up to next.