Cat Chat: Humor For Cat Lovers Book

When I found The Cat's Pajamas in the bargain bin at my local bookstore I was pretty sure I had found a winner. Lots and lots of pictures of cats meant my pre-reading daughter would be able to wallow in cats to her heart's delight, buying me some precious time to sleep in or read a book of my own.

This theory was only half-right. I did find a winner, but there is nothing quiet about my daughter's enjoyment of this book.

"Mommyo, there's a cat in a bag, can you believe your eyes?"

"Mommyo, there's a cat wearing glasses! That's so silly!"

"Mommyo, that cat's purple!"

(No, really, apparently British Shorthairs come in purple now. Well, lilac, if you want to get technical about it.)

This book is clearly a big hit with my daughter, who has fallen asleep clutching it more than once.

I like many things about it too. There are several breeds in here that I've never heard of, and Hale does a good job of succinctly describing the origins of those rarer (and/or newer) breeds.

My main criticism of the book is that the subtitle, "101 of the World's Cutest Cats," sets an impossibly high bar for a book that doesn't include a single tortoiseshell cat.

Also, with a few exceptions such as the silver shaded Chinchilla Persian on p. 150, the chocolate Mandalay on p. 66, and the cream Devon Rex on p 52, Hale's photos are simply extremely competent images of cats being cats. Here and there Hale shows her subjects doing something unexpected and adorable, but for the most part, her images lack the artistry of Anne Geddes or the humor of William Wegman. The cover photo actually is a pretty good example of what I mean. The photo is cute, but cat-wearing-bow is hardly a surprising or original concept.

That said, my daughter (who has never heard of either Geddes or Wegman) clearly doesn't care. She just loves having a photo album of her beloved kittens.

(Review originally published on my blog: Caterpickles--Scientific and Linguistic Engagement with a 4 year old mind, caterpickles.com)