Cecee held the note
high over her head.

Mortimer came bounding
into Jeff's arms.

Mortimer rode on
White Lightning . . .

Meet Whiskers, 
the cat who inspired the character of Mortimer

"When sixth-grade class clown Jeffrey Holiwell makes fun of a writing assignment, his teacher confiscates the notebook he's always scribbling stories in rather when he should be doing his school work. Glumly on his way home, teacher's note in hand, Jeff meets Mortimer, a mischievous and snippy cat that only Jeff can see or hear and whose arrival on the
scene results in total chaos from classroom to ice cream parlor. Imagicat takes young readers on a boy meets trouble-making feline adventure that is original, entertaining, exceptionally well written, and totally engaging."

The cat’s mission is to help Jeff become a writer, but to Jeff it seems that Mortimer just creates chaos everywhere they go. Jeff is too frustrated and too busy trying to cover up for Mortimer to realize there is method in his Imagicat's madness.  At first he rejects the cat’s suggestion to enter a writing contest, but when his friend Sarah insists she’ll finish a book before he does, Jeff decides to give it a try.

Jeff starts writing a chapter book based on Mortimer’s outlandish antics.  He enlists his neighbor, Mr. Rollins, to help with his secret project and keys it in on Rollins’ computer.  With only four months to complete the book and submit the manuscript, Jeff copes with writing, revising, writer’s block, Mortimer’s continuing misbehavior, family misunderstandings, and at last the elation of completing his story in time to enter the contest.

Ever since Jo in Little Women, it is chiefly the girls who scribble notebooks full of stories and dream of being a writer someday.  Jerri Garretson gives us a believable boy scribbler from Manhattan, Kansas, in an absorbing story that keeps the reader wondering, "What happens next?"  Both boys and girls will be happy to meet Jeff and share his agonies and triumphs with him.  Some of those readers may wish to write their own endings to the story.   What do they want to happen to Jeff's alter ego, his Imagicat, after Jeff finishes his book?