Bad Cat!

by Nicola O'Byrne, Nicola O'Byrne (Illustrator)

Overview

Fluffykins is a perfect cat. He wouldn’t do anything naughty . . . would he? But what’s this? He’s knocked over the flowers, tangled up all the yarn, bent the blinds, and scratched the sofa . . . and he won't apologize. What a bad cat! Whatever will Fluffykins do next? This witty and perfectly paced story by award-winning author-illustrator Nicola O’Byrne revels in all the mayhem of living with a bad cat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536217285
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/13/2021
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,024,021
Product dimensions:	10.80(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Nicola O'Byrne was banned from watching Saturday morning television by her parents, and she has been drawing ever since. She grew up in Singapore surrounded by the vibrant colors of the tropics. She gets most of her ideas for children’s books when she should be working on something else, and she bases all of her characters on people she knows. She lives in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

A guileless, off-site narrator futilely entreats Fluffykins—green-eyed, ginger-furred, and utterly recalcitrant—to apologize for successive misdeeds. . . O’Byrne ever so lightly anthropomorphizes her protagonist’s expressions, the cat’s heavy-lidded glare modulated by tiny changes in mouth position that give the cat a distinctively evil look—dramatically magnified by a view through the goldfish bowl on the final page. . . readers inclined to indulge feline mischief will chuckle at the extremes on display.
—Kirkus Reviews

With bold serifed text, crisp white backgrounds, and digital art reminiscent of colored pencils, O’Byrne tells a simple, charming tale that rings true for anyone who cohabits with a cat. Giggles will abound as Fluffykins gleefully wreaks havoc, and the narrator’s admonishments and Fluffykins’s mischievous antics (complete with an utterly feline scowl) will make this a sure favorite for group storytime. This will be a great pick for fans who appreciate the willful chaos of Shannon’s David or Mo Willems’s Pigeon.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

2021-03-02
A guileless, off-site narrator futilely entreats Fluffykins—green-eyed, ginger-furred, and utterly recalcitrant—to apologize for successive misdeeds.

Encounters with a glass vase of pink flowers and a basket of knitting yield predictably naughty results. The narrator ineffectively cajoles: “Now, that’s two things you need to apologize for…. / Fluffykins! What have you done now?” After attacking the sofa, the computer keyboard, the toilet paper, and the blinds and peeing on the floor, the cat’s banished outdoors. “Now go and think about what you’ve done.” A spell of rain brings the bedraggled cat to the window, customarily narrowed eyes now turned to saucers, and soon Fluffykins is indoors, making abbreviated amends: a belly-up posture of supplication and a “MEOOOW” that’s interpreted optimistically as self-reproach. “Thank you, Fluffykins. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now, let’s clean everything up and forget all about it.” Of course, the incorrigible cat’s already on the goldfish bowl. O’Byrne ever so lightly anthropomorphizes her protagonist’s expressions, the cat’s heavy-lidded glare modulated by tiny changes in mouth position that give the cat a distinctively evil look—dramatically magnified by a view through the goldfish bowl on the final page. That fish is right to look terrified.

Nothing new here, but readers inclined to indulge feline mischief will chuckle at the extremes on display. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews