How to Give Your Cat a Bath

October 15, 2018
A determined girl delivers a raucous manual on how to bathe a cat.This step-by-step guide to bathing a cat is everything except boring. Whether it's filling the tub with too much (or not enough) water, upturning the house in search of a scaredy cat, or attempting to bribe the frightened feline with a delicious snack of milk and cookies, this rose-haired instructor is intent on teaching readers how to bathe her pet. After each attempt to demonstrate this hilarious lesson, the persistent instructor finds that either the water has gotten too cold or the bathwater has flooded the house or some other such calamity. After her five-step tutorial has turned into a 10-step failure, the young protagonist realizes that bathing a cat is achievable in one easy step: Cats can lick themselves clean. The illustrations are filled with action and humor. Each page is a bright yellow, and even when there is no text, the composition and the expressions of both cat and girl communicate volumes. The little girl has brown skin and pink hair in two pom-pom pigtails. Fans of the popular How To series by Jean Reagan and Lee Wildish will enjoy this entertaining book--as will anyone who's ever known a cat. (Picture book. 5-8)

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PreS-Gr 2-In this playful take on an instruction manual for kid cat owners, an unidentified narrator struggles to guide a pink-haired girl with pigtail buns on how to bathe her cat, Mr. Flea. Of course, what the narrator believes should be a simple, five-step task easily evolves into 10 increasingly complicated steps with humorous detours, like Mr. Flea going into hiding, milk and cookie breaks for the tired cat owner, and a soggy mess from an overflowing bathtub. The story's visual presentation is charming on many levels. Lots of negative space balances each spread, and helps highlight Martz's entertaining, digitally colored ink drawings. Plus, the thoughtful use of fonts serves as a valuable storytelling aid. For example, the narrator's businesslike personality is represented by easy-to-read, basic fonts, while the use of a handwritten font in stretchy speech bubbles gives voice to the pink-haired girl. These details result in a pleasing and well-executed story that really is the cat's meow. VERDICT An excellent choice for independent reading and sharing in small groups.-Phuong Vu, West Jordan Library, UT

March 4, 2019
A child confidently educates readers about the finer points of cat bathing. From the get-go, things don’t go as planned: first, the girl overfills the tub. “Mr. Flea,” a fluffy white cat with a pink nose that matches the girl’s pigtails, catches on to what’s happening and flees (“Step Two: Put your cat in the—wait, where is the cat?” Winstanley writes). After a housewide search for Mr. Flea, the girl takes a break for milk and cookies that is thwarted by the dive-bombing kitty, precipitating a return to the bathtub, another escape, and a seriously flooded bathroom. Martz’s expressive art lays out the runaway circumstances through vignettelike passages and dialogue balloons, capturing the experience of well-laid plans quickly unraveling into disaster. Ages 3–7.

Starred review from January 1, 2019
Grades K-3 *Starred Review* With all good intentions and little insight into feline behavior, a small girl with brown skin and pink hair, fashioned into two poofy ponytails and resembling a Mickey Mouse cap, attempts to cleanse her pet. The white, bulbous-nosed cat does not comply with the child's plans, though the youngster has worked hard?through several trials and errors?to make the tub ready for bath time. The digitally colored pen-and-ink illustrations detail the frenetic endeavor and the ensuing turmoil the child inadvertently creates. She leaves in her wake a trail of damp detritus in her effort to be a conscientious pet owner. Five easy steps? Not a chance! For example, step one is attempted . . . six times. The engaging pictures leave much open space in the background and become a seek-and-find exercise when the cat disappears time and again. This laugh-out-loud picture book can serve as a beginning reader since the text has repeated phrases and few words per page. The illustrations often have an interactive component; dialogue appears in speech bubbles, and characters leave a trail of dots behind them during a search-and-find. The inevitable ending will delight both children and adults, and this title will be requested over and over.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)