Bad Kitty [Hardcover]

Nick Bruel (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: P and up | Series: Bad Kitty

From the creator of The New York Times bestseller Boing! comes the riotous story of a cat gone berserk -- four times over an in alphabetical order each time. Kitty is not happy hen she's told that her favorite foods are all gone and all that's left are Asparagus, Beets, Cauliflower, Dill...and 22 other equally unappealing vegetables. So she: Ate my homework, Bit grandma, Clawed the curtains, Damaged the dishes, and so on, through Z. Only when tastier things arrive (An Assortment of Anchovies, Buffalo Burritos, Chicken Cheesecake...) does she Apologize to Grandma.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3–This four-part alphabet book will appeal to youngsters who like their stories more naughty than nice. The tale opens with Kitty learning that her owners have run out of cat food and that her only options are healthy and nutritious edibles that run the gamut from Asparagus to Zucchini. She reacts by doing an A-to-Z list of mischievous things, like claw[ing] the curtains and hurl[ing] hair balls at our heads. When her owners return with food that ranges from An Assortment of Anchovies to Baked Zebra Ziti, Kitty realizes she must atone for her bad behavior with a final list of alphabetical deeds such as cleaning the cat box and washing the car. Some actions and items are a bit of a stretch, in particular sQuashes for Q and rhUbarb for U. While the story is packed with colorful cartoon illustrations that introduce each object, it is Kitty who steals the show with her slyly drawn feline expressions. Intended for slightly older alphabet-book fans, this offering will attract readers with a taste for the ridiculous.–Maura Bresnahan, High Plain Elementary School, Andover, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

K-Gr. 2. Ostensibly about a cat that turns bad when her family runs out of her favorite food, this is really a clever alphabet book for kids old enough to appreciate the way words work. When a calm kitty overhears her owner say that healthy food is now on the menu, the high-energy artwork shows the cat in paroxysms of horror set against a series of blocks containing pictures of vegetables, alphabetically arranged from asparagus to zucchini. That's when Kitty decides to become Bad Kitty: she "ate my homework . . . hurled hair balls at our heads." Kitty changes again after her owner returns with an A-Z assortment of good, if peculiar, treats, some of which may give readers pause (a donkey named Dave). But Kitty is happy with them all, and to show her pleasure, she undoes all her bad actions--in alphabetical order. The cat, with seemingly dozens of expressions, is the star, but other aspects of the amusingly silly illustrations have equal weight. There's so much going on here that kids will find lots to laugh about. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; First Edition edition (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596430699
• ISBN-13: 978-1596430693
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Bruel is the author and illustrator of, among other books, Bad Kitty, Poor Puppy, Bad Kitty Gets a Bath, Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty, and Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray. A former bookseller, Nick used his quirky sense of humor and cartooning skills to get out from behind the bookstore counter and onto the shelves. But Nick was a born writer. When he was in first grade, he loved nothing more than to write stories and make drawings to go along with them, which he still does to this day. Nick lives with his wife Carina, daughter Isabel, and cat Esmerelda in Tarrytown, New York. During his down time, he collects PEZ dispensers and grows tomatoes in the backyard.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here kittykittykitty - Yowch! Get this for your 4yr old!, September 29, 2005

By 

Anne-Kari "annekari" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bad Kitty (Hardcover)

Omigosh do we love Bad Kitty in our house! I have Bruel's other book, "Boing!", which was age-perfect for my son at the time (great book for the 2-3 yr old set). Now Bad Kitty is out and my son is now 4 1/2 and he had made us read it to him 3 times a night for the past 5 nights. So far, still fresh - even to the adults!

I seriously can't believe I'm the first one to review this book - so I get to tell you to GO GET IT NOW, it's hilarious and sweet, it reinforces the alphabet ("Hey! That's a T, Mommy!") without being painfully 'educational' (read: boring), it's very inventive, but most of all: The illustrations are just wonderful.

We love our Bad Kitty.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alphabet book with attitude, April 14, 2006

By 

Primadogga (Topeka, KS United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bad Kitty (Hardcover)

I found this at the library the other day and took it out for my kids - when we finally got around to reading it we had to keep it longer - the boys wanted to read it every night, take it to church, take it to school...

Basically this is a quadruple alphabet book - it goes through alphabetical lists of the foods Kitty doesn't like, the myriad of ways in which she was bad, the foods her owner bought to placate her, and the many reparations Kitty then made for her badness.

The illustrations are charming (I especially like the little fang kitty develops when she becomes bad), and the need to use the whole alphabet results in a broader vocabulary than is found in most children's books. It is wonderful for reading aloud (especially when the boys provide Kitty's sounds effects, e.g. "hack, hack!"), and the opportunities to point out someone else's outrageously bad behavior are very welcome to my pair of naughty small fry.

I think this book could be enjoyed by kids of almost any age, as with "The Stinky Cheese Man," which I started to read to my eldest at age 2; kids can enjoy quite sophisticated humor given a little background information, and they really like being "in" on jokes and sharing knowing smiles. My 6-year-old is a beginning reader and can use it to sharpen his decoding skills while laughing out loud.

The only reservation I have is that it does present as "yucky" several of the foods I try to feed my family...

Still, I am adding it to my shopping cart today; as noted by other readers, it is a charming gift, and I really should pass one on to my brothers (for their kids, yeah, that's the ticket)...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeps my little guy giggling from start to finish, October 10, 2008

By 

Melissa Schapiro "melissachai" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bad Kitty Cat-Nipped Edition (Hardcover)

This is one of the books you know that your child will cherish for a long time. I bought our copy on a whim through a school program for my three year old. When first glancing at it I thought, wow, this might be too involved for him. I decided to give it a try, thinking if he didn't like it now, maybe he will in a year or two.

It goes through every letter of the alphabet a few times and with each cycle there is a new and very silly sentence and picture for every letter. My three year old enjoyed this so much, that even now approaching four it is still a nighttime favorite. It helped with memory, letter sounds and letter recognition. He loves showing off the book to family members and the fact that he can "read" it on his own.

Because of the joy this book gives us and it's very practical use, I treasure it. There is so much value in learning through laughter!