It's Me.

March 1, 2019

Gr 3-6-A series of short, fast-paced cartoons follow Catwad, a grouchy blue feline who is friends with a cat named Blurmp (who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer). Much of the humor feels like sketch comedy or even vaudeville. There is physical, scatological, and gross-out humor, as well as jokes at the expense of one or both of the cats. Characters fall down, get crushed, turn themselves inside out, or have popsicles stuck in their ears. Benton's artwork bursts with color and will pull in reluctant readers like moths to a flame. While readers who are too young might not get the jokes and older ones might find the tales too silly, many will find them hilarious. VERDICT Grumpy Cat meets The Odd Couple, for kids who like to laugh.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2018
Catwad's a blue-gray cat. His best friend Blurmp's a sunny, orange-colored cat. Both have dispositions to match their pelts. Benton's collection of comic strips, some only a page of panels but others stretching to seven pages, offers humor in the odd-couple vein. Direct descendants of Ren and Stimpy, cantankerous Catwad and airheaded Blurmp trade quips back and forth, spouting nonsense, often with a child-pleasing disgusting edge. Each ministory has a title. In "Love," Blurmp announces an all-encompassing love for "everything." Catwad demands, "Well, what about hatred?" After a lengthy think, Blurmp affirms that "everything" includes hatred, trumping Catwad's incredulity with, "I love you. And hatred is your favorite thing." "Stop wrecking hate for me!" Catwad screams. In "The Cold," when Catwad tells an ailing Blurmp that the virus is inside him, Blurmp makes the (il)logical leap to pregnancy and names the supposed fetal virus Sniffleen, later framing her "baby pictures." "Are those all old Kleenexes?" Catwad asks. And so on. Farts, rat sweat, giant mosquitoes--it's all in there. The full-color comics show the two wildly expressive cats on plain or patterned backgrounds, Catwad with a perpetual frown and Blurmp with a vapid grin. It's sketch-comedy nonsense, but preteens will be onboard immediately and asking for the next volume at the close of this short collection. (Graphic fiction. 9-14)

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