This cute cat seamlessly works an education on bodegas into a playful story.
A spunky bodega-dwelling kitty describes the ins and outs of a bustling neighborhood market.
Life for Chip the bodega cat is full of interesting new friends, great food, hard work, and a lot of fun. A bodega, Chip explains, is a “store that sells a little bit of everything you could need!” From tasty snacks to laundry detergent, the bodega has you covered 24 hours a day. The feline narrator details the rhythm of the day, which includes working diligently through the early-morning deliveries, the busy breakfast rush, the lunch crowd, and the lively after-school hours. Chip helps out around the store, at least in theory, by counting up inventory and lending a paw at the cash register. Of course, the friendly feline is never too busy for a round of hide-and-seek with its many “adoring fans,” the neighborhood kids. Characters depicted in the book represent many cultures and ethnicities, including Chip’s Latinx human family, headed by Papi, who’s from the Dominican Republic. Chin’s vibrant illustrations are touched with a graffiti-artist vibe and bring the world of the bodega to life with engaging full-color spreads. Details will feel perfectly executed to those familiar with bodegas already and will quickly transport those who haven’t yet had the pleasure. Readers’ mouths will water at the delicious-looking food prepared in the bodega’s kitchen.
This cute cat seamlessly works an education on bodegas into a playful story. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-57687-932-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: POW!
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Feline fanciers will snap this up like catnip.
Catty Corner, who’s half cat, half girl, struggles when she attends school for the first time.
Until recently, Catty’s been homeschooled by her half-cat mom (her father is fully human), who teaches her subjects such as reading and string chasing, as well as the importance of following rules like “no midnight zoomies” and “no knocking over shiny things.” But when her mom gets an amazing job at the fish cannery, Catty contends with a whole new challenge: third grade at a real school. On her first day, Catty manages to break every single one of her parents’ big rules for outside the house: no hissing, scratching, or biting. She goes home crestfallen: “Today will go down in hissssstory as the worst first day of school ever.” But when her mom gives her a diary in which both Granny Tabby and Mom detailed their own difficult days as the only half cats, half girls at school, Catty slowly changes her attitude. Careful readers may wonder why Catty’s parents never socialized her with other children and why Granny Tabby’s diary wasn’t shared with her in advance of her first day of school. That said, with its pawsitively adorable puns and sweetly spunky protagonist, this quickly paced tale will please cat lovers; young readers looking for relatably awkward school stories will find it charming, too. The text is broken up by occasional watercolorlike illustrations depicting Catty as light-skinned with ginger hair and tail; her schoolmates are diverse.
Feline fanciers will snap this up like catnip. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781454956471
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Guaranteed fun for young readers, who will eye their classroom pets with some suspicion in the future
Classroom pets have a wild night in the halls of Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary.
George “GW” Washington the hamster has languished in the prison that is second grade for over three months, and he finally has everything he needs to break out. After the students are gone, he escapes and frees his old buddy Barry the bunny, held in first grade…but then they must brave the worst cellblock, kindergarten, to free their old pal Biter the guinea pig. However, Biter has gone through a slight transformation thanks to exposure to daily happy singing and a shared learning community; she does yoga and calls herself Sunflower now. Just as they are strategizing their escape from the building, Harriet, one of the fourth-grade white mice, informs them that upper-grade pets rule the school. With the muscle (and questionable appetites) of Lucinda the fifth-grade snake, Harriet captures the trio and relocks them up. Can they escape and save the children from Harriet’s evil scheme? Graphic novelist Jamieson aims for a younger crowd than Roller Girl’s (2015) with this slightly sarcastic and totally loony tale of friendship and the quest for freedom…which turns out to not be what GW thought it would be. Refreshingly, she doesn’t rely on such tired graphic tropes as extra-long eyelashes to set her female characters apart.
Guaranteed fun for young readers, who will eye their classroom pets with some suspicion in the future . (Graphic fantasy. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-106-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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