Early Book Review: Life Lessons from Catass by Claude Combacau

Life Lessons from Catass by Claude Combacau is currently scheduled for release on July 4 2017. This is a book full of sassy, cat-themed coloring pages, mazes, and puzzles with directions like: “Put the pieces of the $3,000 vase Catsass just destroyed back together. Three odd pieces are parts of other ruined objects because you don’t deserve to have it easy.” Combacau’s “Catsass” cartoons about a mischief-making feline remind cat lovers and haters alike that cats are mostly self-serving creatures. Yes, your particular cat may be awesome and sweet, but this does not make up for the number of cats whose favorite activity is knocking stuff over.

Life Lessons from Catass is a collection of activities all featuring Catsass, who I will admit to having never heard of before, even though I thought I was current on my cartoon and internet cats. Catsass is a cat that is full of mischief and more than a little crass on occasion. I think Catsass shows all the aspects of cats that haters are quick to see and point out, and that cat lovers are aware of but try to ignore. I will admit to chuckling a time or two, and finding the activities to be cute and clever. However, I think it went on just a little too long. 

Book Review: Grumpy Cat’s All About Miserable Me: A Doodle Journal for Everything Awful by Jimi Bonogofsky-Gronseth

Grumpy Cat’s All About Miserable Me: A Doodle Journal for Everything Awful by Jimi Bonogofsky-Gronseth is an activity  book for all ages. Grumpy Cat wants to know about you, and here's your chance to tell everything! Nobody cares about your complaints, except Grumpy Cat! This book gives everyone's favorite cranky feline the chance to make suggestions for revealing your pet peeves. Grumpy will encourage you to draw the ugliest sweater, make a list of the grossest foods, draw three people you sorta kinda like (love is a strong word), and gripe to your heart's content.

Grumpy Cat’s All About Miserable Me is a book that can entertain doodlers of all ages, and anyone that likes the guru,py but cute little face of this famous feline. While definitely taking advantage of the fame and a niche market, this book will make anyone that falls into the target audience happy. In fact, I ordered a copy that I intend to give to my almost ten year old son, because he loves to draw and enjoys activity books and things that let him be creative, however I expect to order a second copy for my daughter who is not a big fan of sitting still long enough to write or draw, but loves anything animal related. I think adults will enjoy the book too, but I think it will be more eagerly completed and enjoyed by children old enough to understand sarcasm.

Book Review: Friendship Riddle by Megan Frazer Blakemore

Friendship Riddle by Megan Frazer Blakemore is a middle grade novel. Ruth Mudd-O’Flaherty has been a lone wolf at Frontenac Consolidated Middle School ever since her best friend, Charlotte, ditched her for “cooler” friends. Who needs friends when you have fantasy novels? Roaming the stacks of her town’s library is enough for Ruth. Until she finds a note in an old book and in that note is a riddle, one that Ruth can’t solve alone. With an epic quest before her, Ruth admits she needs help, the kind that usually comes from friends. Lena and Coco, two kids in her class could be an option, but allowing them in will require courage. Ruth must decide: Is solving this riddle worth opening herself up again?

Friendship Riddle is a book that surprised me. I thought this was going to be a typical coming of age story about finding yourself and the reunion of friends. While there is a great deal of Ruth discovering herself in the tough transitions of junior high, there is so much more going on here. There is her struggling with family issues, a former best friend with even bigger problems, trying new things, and discovering that the scariest things we can do are sometimes also the simplest. The new forming friendships, changing feelings and views, and connections to books are things many readers of age with Ruth (and beyond) can relate to. I found many of the situations very realistic and found myself cringing or laughing as I remembered embarrassing situations and less than stellar days of my own. I liked that Ruth knew her mind, and even though she did not often make big shows of her convictions, held true to them. This is particularly true with her notions in the boy/girl department. I thought the secondary characters, particularly Lena, Charlotte, and Coco, were also well developed and made the book that much more real for me.

Friendship Riddle is a satisfying journey through Ruth's experience in middle school. I found it to be entertaining and emotional, with many moments that are easy to relate to for middle grade reads and older. Even as an adult I found the social trials to feel very real and riddles to be enjoyable. It helps that I was very much a reader of fantasy and avoider of people- and frankly still am- so I very much relate to Ruth.