Bad Kitty's back and she's badder than ever, if that's possible. This time she's off to school to deal with her behavior problems. Puppy goes along to get his drooling under control. What I like best about these graphic easy-to-read novels are the zany details and the way things never turn out the expected way. For instance, before Kitty heads off for her first day, her family presents her with a complete line of Love Love Angel Kitten school supplies, including backpack, notebook, eraser, calculator, bowling ball, cinder block, and tractor tire--with spot illustrations of each one. Clearly a spoof on the Hello Kitty craze, the items point up how much Bad Kitty is the antithesis of all that saccharine goodness.
When the school bus finally pulls up to the Diabla Von Gloom's School for Wayward Pets, the building is a stereotypical Addams house of horrors. The next spread shows the door creaking open and the shadow of a monstrous crone with sharp fangs and long talons. Turn the page and the shadow is an illusion formed by a young, attractive teacher holding an assortment of books, boxes, and pencils.
The kindly teacher is determined to get Bad Kitty to reveal what she's so angry about, but the cat's a tough cookie and won't crack. Besides she has more pressing problems--like a scary bulldog who hates cats. Luckily Bad Kitty has managed to convince Petunia that she's a cow.
As always, Uncle Murray checks in with his Fun Facts spreads. This time around the topic centers on why dogs and cats don't get along.
Graduation takes place at the end of the first day--it's a very short semester--and each animal student has to demonstrate what he or she has learned. Will Bad Kitty carry away a diploma? Don't bet on it, but an amusing epilogue suggests that school wasn't so awful after all.
Bad Kitty: School Daze
by Nick Bruel
Roaring Book Press, 160 pages
Published: January 2013
Written and illustrated by Elise Gravel
$10.99, age 4-8, 40 pages
If your child goes gaga over Gogos Crazy Bones or thinks Uglydolls are awesome, here's a graphic book he won't want to put down.
The star of this early reader is a self-assured little monster who wants to be the reader's pet and insists he's as easy to care for as a dog or cat.
But there's a catch. If you don't take good care of the "glurb," he turns into a little rascal.
The glurb has been known to stretch his mouth with his toes and waggle his tongue when he's not getting enough attention, and bite your fingernail when he's scared.
He'll also hide when he's naughty, whine when he doesn't get enough cuddles, pluck your eyebrows when you're asleep and unroll the toilet paper just for fun.
Still there's a lot to be said for getting a glurb. He loves to be tickled on the belly, ride on the tops of your shoes -- and having one is hardly enough.
Or is it?
Silly and fun, this fast-paced guide to raising a pet monster will have readers wishing for a persnickety glurb of his own.
Other great books in the Balloon Toons series include Rick & Rack and The Great Outdoors by Ethan Long, and The Super Crazy Cat Dance by Aron Nels Steinke.
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I LOVE Bad Kitty. Wish I knew a kid the appropriate age to buy this for.