<u>Katie the Catsitter</u> is an adorable, sweet, humorous adventure tale filled with lots of heart too. When Katie can't afford go away to summer camp with her best friend, she ends up trying to pick up odd jobs around her apartment building to fund it. Suddenly, she finds herself taking care of her neighbor's very skilled 217! cats. This is geared to be more middle grade, but would be perfectly suitable for 3rd grade and up! I loved that this was a realistic superhero/villain graphic novel with important themes like friendship and animal rights included. I'm always a fan of a graphic novel with a great message/plot AND equally pleasing and enticing illustrations, and <u>Katie the Catsitter</u> delivers! I cannot wait to purchase this for my school library!

It's summer and Katie is bummed that she can't go to summer camp with her friends. In order to try and pay to go, she starts working odd jobs. The only job that really sticks with with Madeline, a woman who has her watch her 217 cats. These aren't ordinary cats though: they can sew, use the computer, 3D print, and whole lot more. As the summer progress, Katie begins to learn more about herself, Madeline, and the cats.

This was an adorable and fun graphic novel. I loved Katie and all of the cats that she watched. It was a good blend of a friendship and growing up story as well as a superhero fantasy. I also very much liked the art style and color palette. This is going to really appeal to fans of Raina Telgemeier, Svetlana Chmkova, and Ben Hatke. This is one of my favorite graphic novels I read this year. I cannot wait for it to come out so I recommend to a wide range of readers.

If I'd had this book as a kid, I would have read it again and again. There are so many subtly funny moments in this book. Katie is just a girl living her regular life, wishing she could go to camp with her friends... and she happens to live in a city of superheroes and villains, but it doesn't affect her day-to-day at all. She gets a job catsitting - for 217 of the smartest cats ever. A lot of little moments are so silly and fun. There's also an underlying theme here of a girl who is being raised by a single mom who can't afford to send her to camp, and there's a really genuine way of showing Katie's pain at knowing she doesn't have as much money as her friends and feeling too proud to accept money without working for it.

My only issue with this book is the way Bethany stopped being as good a friend when she went to camp. There seemed to be a plot point leading up to why this happened (suggesting she wasn't getting Katie's letters), but it never really came to anything. I think the middle grades trope of "friend goes away for a week or two and they suddenly change" is a little old. Hoping it'll be addressed in the sequel!