SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: July 2021] Katie and the Catsitter
I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Colleen AF Venable. This is her first middle grade graphic novel. And it is fantastic.
So much fun and so much going on!
The artwork is by Stephanie Yue who also drew her Guinea P.I. books and it is a perfect match.
In this story Katie is a little bummed because her friends are going off to summer camp and she can’t afford to go. She puts up a sign in her apartment offering her services, but she finds that she’s really not very good at anything (she can’t lift heavy groceries, she kills plants). Finally, she asks if she can work for the bodega owner downstairs. He loves Katie, but she is too young. He offers her a consolation lunch of “baby kale, blue cheese, craisins… those are basically candy.” But all she wants is a PBnJ.
It’s all pretty normal.
Except that in this world there are superheroes and super villains. The most famous superhero right now is The Eastern Screech, a guy whop dresses like an owl.
Katie’s best friend Bethany says that her mom can treat Katie to the final week of camp (it’s nocturnal week!), but Katie doesn’t feel comfortable doing that. She is determined to raise the money. And that’s when Ms. Lang spots her.
The bodega owner has a cat, Scratch-Off who hates everyone. But he loves Katie. Ms. Lang needs a catsitter. So she offers Katie $25 a day to look after her cats (pets are forbidden in the building). Ms. Lang’s cat is very cute. As is her second one. As are all 217 cats! “NYC apartments just don’t fit 218 cats”).
These cats are well trained. One brings the remote, another places a pizza order online and none of them use litter boxes (they use the toilet). It seems like apiece of cake. But once Ms. Lang leaves for the night, the cats get a gleam in their collective eyes and become terrors. Within minutes the entire place is destroyed and fifty pizzas are being ordered to the house.
Katie freaks out and genuinely doesn’t know what to do. Although by midnight, the cats have put everything back where it belonged. Katie’s nerves are frazzled but Ms. Lang doesn’t suspect a thing.
Katie then reads the list of cat names and special skills that Ms. Lang provided when he started. (The back covers have a chart with all 217 (I didn’t count, but I’m assuming) cats and their special abilities. Like Xerxes: hidden cameras; Zo-zo: furniture designer.
Meanwhile, criminals are plaguing the city. In particular The Moustress seems to be causing much havoc. After babysitting the cats for a while, Katie thinks that maybe Miss Lang is connected to the Moustress. But that’s crazy, right?
Katie is raking in the cash, but Bethany has stopped writing every day like she had been. In fact the last postcard is all about a boy and nothing about how Bethany misses her. What gives?
Then Katie meets a girl in the park. The girl Marie, knows Ms. Lang and thinks she might be Stainless Steel the coolest superhero (The Easter Screech is a loser). Katie doesn’t know what to think but she knows she likes hanging out with Marie.
So there’ a lot going on in this story–super cats, superheroes, supervillain. and friendship. Venable does a great job tying it all together. She promise another book will be coming out next year and I cant wait,
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