A cute graphic novel with a young female protagonist, and cats and superheroes and antiheroines.
It's my heaven.What more could you want?!
'Katie the Catsitter' is about more than the determined twelve-year-old Katie keeping hundreds of super intelligent felines out of trouble for her neighbours, for a fee so she can afford to join her friends at summer camp. There's more than arts, crafts, chores, odd jobs, colour, glitter, stickers, and pubescent cutesiness and drama going on here. It's about friendship, growing up, moving on, finding new interests and hobbies, responsibility, motherhood, getting to know new people, never judging anyone at face value, looking at the bigger picture, and doing the right thing - like saving a misunderstood heroine. Who might in fact be a political prisoner. Social justice - for animal rights!
Catwoman--er, Mousetress--would be proud.
'Katie the Catsitter' is funny and enjoyable stuff. However, the pacing is off at times - kind of slow - and not everything is resolved satisfactorily, due to some subplots receiving priority over others, resulting in a rushed ending. Issues that come up, or have come up beforehand, are glossed over and gotten over very quickly. Maybe the story threads that have fallen on the wayside will be picked up again and explored more thoroughly in the sequel?
A few elements, and characters, are severely underdeveloped. In fact, in the middle of the book a plot point is established involving a superhero's seedy intel and interception, but then it is completely forgotten about. It's never brought up again.
It's still a fluffy (it has to be if it has this many cats!) and creative children's graphic novel, that also happens to contain superheroes. I adore nearly everyone in it - Katie, her neighbour the cool and stylish cat lady Madeline Lang, her other neighbour the grouchy and crotchety old Mrs. Piper, and her mother, Cheryl, who is among the loveliest, funniest, and most supportive and relatable single mums I've ever seen in fiction. She's like a best friend to Katie, which is awesome.
Recommended for an adorable, fun, silly time.
Final Score: 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment