BUYING ADVISORY: PRE-K EL (K-3) –OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
When a cat crawls through his bedroom window, the narrator,
portrayed as a young black boy and often pictured with his parents and younger
sister, says he doesn’t have a cat. He has a space invader, paper shredder,
stylist, food critic. When he sneaks the cat to school, he doesn’t have a cat.
He has an undercover secret agent and wrecking ball. Back home, he acknowledges
that you may think he has a cat in his room, but this bitey, scratchy ball of
fluff who’s slowly destroying everything he owns (haha!) is really a rescue
mission.
Published in the same year as the companion book I Don’t
Have a Dog, this one follows a more complicated storyline that is only made
clear with help from the illustrations. Climbing into a space helmet (space cadet),
knocking over a stack of books (surveillance system), and swatting at flies (bug
swatter) matches my extensive experience with cats, but this story also has an
additional layer of describing a lost-and-found pet that may or may not need a
new home. The weakest aspects, from my perspective, are the illustrations and text
font.
Reviewer: P.K. Foster, MLS, elementary school teacher-librarian
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