By Paula Holmes

I started thinking about titling this post as Part II reading with your cat ears updating my WorldKid*Cat*LitMonth post from 2022 on the joy of cat books. Then I sat in a presentation about my local library system and an audience member questioned if we need physical books in this digital world and more broadly if we need libraries (please note I support multiple formats of reading materials but that is a different post). It took everything for me not to come out of my seat. Not to worry as my library director is absolutely excellent at handling these questions. But I have continued to think about the physical book, especially regarding picture books and reading with children. One of the biggest take aways of my library career is that reading aloud is essential. The publishers of the cat books below print high-quality, beautiful books that encourage turning the page and then turning back, reading over and over. Their books often have gorgeous endpapers, informative back matter, or complex engineering, things that make the tactile experience of holding a book so very special. When I finish reviewing books for the year and all the awards are over, I weed my collection and donate to several organizations that work with displaced children, who, for multiple reasons, currently have limited possessions. The comment that I always hear is that they hug the books so tight and are so happy to have something that is their very own. Although, my cat would never allow me to hug her close, these cat books are ones to hug close, and cozy up in a sunbeam with your cat ears on.

MOOZ MOOSE (in Anishinaabemowin and English)

When he was little, my son named his beloved stuffed orca whale Rooster, so I was instantly in love with a cat named Mooz, which means moose in Anishinaabemowin. One wonders how a cat gets a name – I am still trying to figure out “why”a whale was named Rooster – especially a name like Mooz, and this book tries to determine the why with a text that flows like a conversational discovery. Written in both Anishinaabemowin and English, this delightful picture book by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckly translated by Mary Ann Corbiere compares, in words and pictures, Mooz, who doesn’t look or act like a moose, with all the animals. She shares characteristics with toads, chickens, snakes… Readers will have fun imitating Mooz yawning like a coyote or sitting like a toad. Kudos to Groundwood Books for their commitment to bringing books to children that reflect the experiences, art, and culture of Indigenous people of Canada’s First Nations. The construction and color palette of the book with alternating picture and text pages is thoughtful and high quality. Anishinaabemowin and English text playfully alternate on colorful pages of green, light blue, yellow-ochre, and red. MOOZ MOOSE is the follow up to BOOZHOO! HELLO!, another title I would highly recommended for any collection. Maybe reading with your moose antlers on could making reading this book even more fun.

Puma Concolor: In Search of Patagonia’s Wild Pumas

Eerdman’s publishes great cat books so, it was difficult to narrow it down to one. I highly recommend you explore their website. Along with cats, they have some bear books that are some of my all time favorites. But today a book for cat lovers, nature lovers, future biologists, and future filmmakers, and everyone in-between. You will want this non-fiction title on a BIG cat, the wild puma. Eerdman’s excels in their publishing of STEAM titles and PUMA CONCOLOR is part of the their Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers series. These titles are beautifully crafted, packed with outstanding information in a variety of formats, with illustrations that both capture the data and the reader, and always with additional resources.

Let’s take a moment to digest the copyright page and the bio of translator Lawrence Schimel, “…written or translated over 300 books”. Typically I hear of a film based on a book, but PUMA CONCOLOR is a book written by documentary filmmaker, René Amanda, based on his work in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia seen in BBC Earth Dynasties II, episode 1.  The book includes maps! One map is of the national park and graphics of the animals living there. The book is filled with informational graphics, including those that show scale of the puma to other big cats, characteristics of the puma, and a QR code to hear the vocalizations, all beautifully illustrated. Illustrator Julio Antonio Blasco’s research with photos and video of the pumas pays off with graphic design of the book and vivid images of the Patagonia landscape and habitat. The yellows in the book bring a warmth and the icy blues, grey and white let us feel the cold and wind on the film crew. The book focuses on the story of one female puma, Rupestre and her cubs, that personalizes the data and involves the reader. Two-page spreads fill the book; the hunting spread contains a sequence that animates  Rupestre taking down a guanaco. The book follows the journey of Rupestre’s cubs. We have a glimpse of a new cycle as the film crew returns to shoot a new documentary as Rupestre is lovingly nurturing a new litter of cubs. A list of documentaries and the author’s selected bibliography are included in the Epilogue. I reviewed this from a PDF, but it looks like it will have great endpapers with lots of paw prints.

What a Small Cat Needs

I discovered the work of Natalia Shaloshvili in 2024, when Enchanted Lion Books, fittingly on brand, published MISS LEOPARDA (Miss Leoparda is a leopard). The final line in the book is, “And that was truly amazing”, and I totally agree. I was eagerly awaiting what would come next and was rewarded with WHAT A SMALL CAT NEEDS. To start, the end papers in shades of blue with pops of white and yellow are beautiful, wrapping the story in between like a gift. The illustrations are made with acrylics and watercolor pencils, the brilliant blue rim of small cat’s eyes and her small pink nose stands out against her softly shaded black fur. The flat pages feel alive with texture and color.

The book opens to an adorable, soft, fluffy, small black cat with whiskers that spread across the page. Shaloshvili introduces us to a small cat with her small eyes, small ears, and all the other body parts, because that is what a makes a small cat…oh and of course a tail. Slowly, each page tells all the things a small cat needs, from milk, to a roof over her head, to sunlight and her belly rubbed, and especially someone to hug her. I totally volunteer. I envision many children hugging this book tightly just as if it was a small cat. Huggable and beautiful, what every cat lover needs. Even though this is a story about a small cat, one cannot forget the birds, especially those with knitted hats, in this book. They are on the cover, the end papers, the title page, and added joy.

About Paula Holmes

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