EARLY CHAPTER BOOK REVIEW: The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale & LeUyen Pham
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Princess in Black may know how to handle all kinds of monsters, but a kitten set on destruction? Me-OW!
Duchess Wigtower had heard that pets are fun, but all her kitten has gotten her is nine lives' worth of problems. Eeeeek! It’s time for someone else to deal with this catastrophe. Princess Magnolia is thrilled when a kitten lands on her doorstep, but just as she’s about to play with Plumpkins (or should it be Hugmaster Floof?) the monster alarm goes off. When Princess Magnolia returns to her castle, her furry companion has carved up the wallpaper! In fact, each time Princess Magnolia leaves to help the Goat Avenger fight a very grouchy monster, her feline friend wreaks havoc. Has the Princess in Black finally met her match? Ten years after she first donned her cape, the Princess in Black returns for a purrfectly hilarious entry to the New York Times best-selling series.
REVIEW
As in the other Princess in Black books, our heroine, Princess Magnolia (i.e. The Princess in Black) faces a new challenge. While she's very experienced in dealing with unhappy and difficult monsters, she's at a bit of a loss when she finds herself the proud new owner of a kitten. Not just any kitten, mind you, but a seemingly very difficult, ornery one. After Duchess Wigtower drops off the kitten at Princess Magnolia's castle, Princess Magnolia is left to try to satisfy the demanding feline. Naturally in the middle of this conundrum, she is called away to fight a monster who is playing with a bunch of goats. She returns to find the kitten has destroyed her wallpaper. As she struggles to come up with a name for the kitten, as well as something that makes the kitten happy, she discovers that "when cats misbehave, it usually means they need something they're not getting. Just like kids." And it turns out that it isn't just the cat that this statement fits. Although I'm not sure I totally agree with that statement, sometimes kids misbehave for reasons other than need. In any case, in order to solve her disagreement with both the kitty and the monster, Princess Magnolia has to look beyond the misbehavior to the wants beneath. My favorite parts were the various amusing names that she tries to give the kitten before settling on a still amusing, but just right name. I don't know how they keep doing it, but this one is just as delightful as the other books in the series and sure to be popular with the princess-loving crowd.
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