109. Show and Tail

Show and Tail (Home for Meow #2) Reese Eschmann. 2022. 144 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Bubbles’s belly is huge! She waddles around the kiddie pool Mama filled with blankets for her. The pool is in the corner of our living room, right below the window that gets the best morning light.
“Kira, how many kittens do you think Bubbles is going to have?” asks my little brother, Ryan. We’re kneeling by the side of the kiddie pool. “I bet she’ll have at least eighteen.”

Premise/plot: Show and Tell is the second book in the super-adorable early chapter book series, Home for Meow. Kira, our protagonist, is super-super-super excited--along with her brother, Ryan--that one of their foster cats is PREGNANT. Kira thinks the cat will have six kittens because that's the number of stripes on her back. Ryan, however, who is dreaming of a cat army, is convinced that she'll have eighteen kittens. Though the kittens haven't been born yet, Kira is already trying to find homes for the new kittens. And she's trying to find out how many of her classmates do not have pets...yet.

My thoughts: This second book is again super adorable and sweet. Watching Mr. A and Dr. DJ of Kitten Academy (on YouTube) has spoiled me a bit. Their channel exists primarily to foster pregnant mom cats and find homes for the moms and kittens. Each birth of each momcat is archived. I wish the author would have watched a couple of births. I think 99.99% of readers will not think twice of any of the details--or lack thereof. But the mom cat going into labor is treated like a HUMAN going into labor. Still. Even though I found a couple of things a bit on the unrealistic side, I liked it overall. The writing works well for me. I've shared my favorite quote below.

Quote: 

Math makes less sense than a cat army going to the moon. I try to reword the math problem in terms I know.
Leo has 33 pieces of candy cats left over from Halloween. If he gives 14 pieces cats to Mark and 11 pieces cats to Anna, how many pieces cats does he have left?
I sigh. Changing candy to cats doesn’t make solving the problem any easier. My brain feels like egg whites that have been whipped for too long.

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers