Sweet and appealing, but there’s no shortage of better crafted, more dynamic, and funnier cat comics.
A compilation of comic shorts about quirky cats putting on a newscast.
Lupin, Elvis, and Puck are the reporters at CN News, reporting on all the goings-on in the house of The Man, The Woman, The Toddler, and The Baby (all are White). The family and their three cats (the inspiration for creator Dunn’s webcomic-turned–graphic novel series) experience what would, to nonfeline viewers, be an unexciting world. But through the eyes of the newscaster kitties, everyday events—a snowstorm, making a salad, getting a new bathmat—become newsworthy. The episodes highlight the absurdities familiar to those who live with cats: A kitten has an important reason for almost knocking a plant off a shelf; the cats all competitively climb the clean laundry; they bop one another in the head in competition for a favorite perch. Alas, none of the artistic possibilities of the comics form are present here. Lettering is unexciting, crammed into overstuffed speech bubbles, and the artwork shifts scale and sometimes floats in a formless setting. The lack of section or chapter markers between the unconnected and usually brief (two to three pages) stories makes following the action confusing, as many of the scenes don’t have a clear punchline or conclusion. But the antics of the feline narrators are charming, especially for animal lovers.
Sweet and appealing, but there’s no shortage of better crafted, more dynamic, and funnier cat comics. (activities, paper dolls) (Graphic fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5248-5819-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders.
When a Bengali boy finds and saves a tiger cub from a man who wants to sell her on the black market, he realizes that the schoolwork he resents could lead to a career protecting his beloved Sunderbans island home.
When the not-yet-weaned cub escapes from a nearby reserve, Neel and many of his neighbors join the search. But some are in the pay of greedy Gupta, a shady entrepreneur who’s recently settled in their community. Even Neel’s father is tempted by Gupta’s money, although he knows that Gupta doesn’t plan to take the cub back to the refuge. Neel and his sister use the boy’s extensive knowledge of the island’s swampy interior to find the cub’s hiding place and lure it out so it can be returned to its mother. The Kolkota-born author visited the remote Sunderbans in the course of her research. She lovingly depicts this beautiful tropical forest in the context of Neel’s efforts to find the cub and his reluctance to leave his familiar world. While the conflicts resolve a bit too easily, the sense of place is strong and the tiger cub’s rescue very satisfying. Pastel illustrations will help readers envision the story.
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders. (author's note, organizations, glossary) (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58089-660-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
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