A Cat With No Name: A Story About Sadness was a very good story about a lost kitten who has been temporarily adopted by a little girl, Olive. The story deals with the inevitable separation and loss of the cat when it returns to its owner and Olive turns her sadness into something positive and special.

What I liked about this book was that it was a simple and short story about sadness in a situation younger children could relate to. I liked how the father took his daughter out for a little treat of hot chocolate to comfort her as he spoke with her about being happy for the cat finding its owner. He praises her for taking care of the cat, validates his daughter’s feelings of sadness where most books would just try to mask the child’s feelings by replacing the cat. Think it was great that Olive’s father encourages her to turn her grief into something positive like remembering the cat when she looks at the stars.

It’s kind of the end of the story with the conversation with the father, I don’t think there needed to be much more of an explanation or to drag the story out longer like some of the other reviews suggested. With the inclusion of the resources at the end of the book about sadness, I believe some parents will find it useful when comforting their children who are feeling sad.

I would recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Quarto Kids + NetGalley for the advance review copy of "A Cat with No Name" by Kochka, illustrated by Marie Leghima, and with tips for parents by Louison Nielman.

Social emotional intelligence is one of the most important skills we can teach our children, but also one of the most difficult to coach and work on. The story is completely relatable, the characters will feel real to littles, and the parent tips are just right.

This is a very sweet story of a little girl who adopts a stray cat and quickly takes to caring for her. They spend all their time together and the girl becomes attached. But one day, the cat disappears and the little girl has to deal with the fact that Kitty Cat has another owner who missed her just as much as the girl now does.

It's a tale that focuses on kids dealing with sadness, which is a really important topic to focus on, although I definitely wasn't expecting it to take that turn! As well, the drawings in this are simply gorgeous! The artwork reminded me of Eloise, actually.

This is a book about a little girl who finds a cat and wants to keep it. The point of the book is to be about feelings of sadness and validating your children's emotions, but the story was not very good at depicting that. I feel like the parents could have explained a bit better to the child that the kitten may have already had an owner, and helped her with activities to help find the owner. I have read similar books to this before with the same plot and I feel like they did a better job of conveying how it may be sad when you get attached to an animal, but overall it is a happy ending because they found their home again. Overall, the story just felt rushed and flat. I like how the dad validated the child's feelings and the comment about looking at the stars and remembering the cat because of her name, but there was very little in the way of educational material or even an enjoyable picture book.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

The book talks about a girl who found a kitten without a collar. Olive took care of the kitten for about a week, until one day the kitten was gone. Turned out that she belongs to someone else! Olive was heartbroken and sad, and her dad comforted her and helped her to navigate through the sadness. At the end of the book, there is a really helpful guide to help children deal with sadness in a healthy way.
This is great for young children who needs help naming and dealing with emotions!

One Sunday morning while everyone is sleeping Olive creeps downstairs to have a bite to eat. She hears a sound at the kitchen window and proceeds to discover the source of it. She finds an adorable little kitten outside and opens the window to let the little creature in. Olive notices that the kitten isn't wearing a collar and seems to be lost or abandoned... and hungry too.

When Olive's mother comes down stairs Olive excitedly asks if she can keep the precious little furry bundle. Her mom says that Olive can feed the kitten and look after her but if someone comes looking for her she has to go home.

Delighted Olive and her new kitten friend are inseparable for seven days but on the eighth day the kitten mysteriously vanishes. There is no sign of her at all. Olive and her parents go out searching to see if they can find her. Will their search be successful and if they can't locate her how will this make Olive feel?

I love the colourful, kid-friendly illustrations and the discussions that they will invoke. The author has included a segment of ways to help children cope with sadness at the back of the book. They are a wonderful resource for parents, caregivers or educators. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this fab book.
When Olive finds a cat with no collar at the window, she has found a new friend. But the cat’s home is not with Olive and the cat will need to go home at some point.
I love everything about this book, it is wonderful.
The story is heartfelt and warming and will make a strong connection with young children. It is a great story to read out loud also.
Sophie Bouxom’s illustrations are adorable and remind me of Sendak’s illustrations for Ruth Krauss books. And the yellow background and white space throughout the book, really helps to lift the sadness of the story to a story of hope and love and celebration.
As a bonus, at the back are many tips on how to deal with children who are sad. The story is one which will encourage parent and child to have a conversation about things that have made them sad.

This book is intended to help kids understand the emotion of sadness, but I personally don't think it was done tastefully. First, the girl lets the stray cat in the house while her parents are asleep. Then, rather than being responsible and bringing the cat to the shelter or vet, the parents let her keep the cat until the rightful owner claims it. By this time, Olive is attached to the cat and has to give it back. That doesn't seem to show sadness to me; it shows cruelty on the parents part. What kind of parents do that??

A children's book to help discuss sadness.

The notes to adults and parents at the end of this book is as important as the story might be to youngsters.

Olive has the opportunity to care for a beautiful kitten, but is sad when the kitten is found by her owner. Olive's dad notices Olive's sadness and is able to help her overcome this difficult time in a very touching way.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher (Quarto Publishing Group) and the author Kochka for the opportunity to read this advance read copy in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is Mar 23, 2021.
Some words in the notes to adults/parents contain British spelling instead of American spelling.

This is a brightly colored, illustrated book on the subject of sadness for young children . The loss in the story does not involve death. I think that the story offers a way to open up discussion about feelings without being very threatening.

The story has to do with Olive finding a stray cat and being overjoyed to have a pet. How does she feel when this kitten goes back to its owner?

This book has a situation to which children can relate. It offers a helpful way to introduce conversations about feelings with the youngest children. There is a helpful section for adults at the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

I think this is a worthy topic to cover - sadness is an emotion that we rarely teach kids to embrace, and parents often think they're helping their child by distracting them from it or trying to make it better. I though the educational information at the end for parents was really valuable, but I'm not sure that translated into the actual book. I was expecting to spend some more pages on discussing sadness and why it's okay rather than the character's father suggesting they go get a treat.

A sweet and leisurely-paced story for young readers told through thoughtful text and charming illustrations.

This book so gently handles the topic of sadness for children. Through a story of a cat adoption which turned out to be a cat foster situation, a little girl learns to let go and deal with her emotions. The illustrations are vivid and compliment the plot.

Such a bittersweet book about a kitten finding a little girl and then going back home, leaving the little girl sad. It’s a good book to open a dialogue with children about their feelings and the illustrations are pretty.

An utterly wonderful book which gently explores the theme of sadness for young children. It is sensitively written and the pictures are beyond beautiful. This publisher never fails to give us books which are needed and which tell their stories with well thought out words and world class illustrations. The addition of ways to help children with sadness written by a psychologist at the back is well placed, making this series one which all those caring for and teaching young children will find a wonderful resource.

With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a beautiful read.

A wonderful story teaches being sad.
When the little girl Olive found out that the cat was sent back to its owner, my heart sank with her. :-( But, we should be happy that the cat is back to its owner, its own home. Just reminded me that last year, I found a lost puppy, and with many people's help, I was able to send the puppy back to its home. A happy ending.
Love this picture book.

For me this was more successful as a part of this series than the first I saw, regarding the exuberance of youthful joy. Here we are concerned with an emotion that it seems to me is harder to get right when dealing with the very young. Our heroine tries to adopt a kitten that passes her bedroom window one day, and faces the dejection, loss and bereavement kind of emotions when the cat fails to return to her home one day, never to be seen again. The other volume wasn't bad in any way, but here the story has more depth for repeat readings, and as I say it would appear that coping with such miserable situations is more important a lesson for the parents whose instincts fail them than would be just delight. The two pages of educational back-matter are of equal importance to the entertainment from the nicely-illustrated story, and it all seemed more essential than the previous.