Binky and his animal friends have it out for "aliens" AKA insects. These are cute stories which will have kids laughing at the antics of these cute little pets.

While I enjoyed this book, and I get the link to the TV series, I have to say that the graphic novels are stronger overall. I'm not sure I get why the graphic novels wouldn't be a good follow up for anyone who enjoys the show. The demographic for the TV series is a younger audience, for sure, but the graphic novels aren't really set up to be more advanced. Sure, they are a bit less bright and colourful. The thing about Binky is that he is a cat, and everything around him is seen through the lens of his lived experience as a cat. Spires has created a world for him that brings adventure to his life and can be used as a lens for seeing how pet cats behave and do the things they do. Binky as a space cat is far fetched, but if you look at things through his eyes, and that's what this book does, it's not impossible to believe that everything outside the door of his house is outer space. It's certainly uncharted territory for the house kitty that he is. It has been a while since I read the original stories, but I don't recall a fish or turtle factoring into those, which makes for a fun addition. I appreciate that the pets in the house realize sometimes that Binky can get excited over nothing, so they wait for the something to happen before they do anything. In this story, it's a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, and Binky's interpretation of this is not hard to believe when you start to think about home complicated and complex metamorphosis is.

The illustrations are definitely more in keeping with the picture book format. Not sure they are as much fun as the original, but again, I'm a bit of a die hard that way, having read Binky the Space Cat when it first came out.

These can be read as stand alone books, so you don't have to have read any of the previous books in the series to understand the story. Spires includes a summary of PURST and the team in each book to kick things off. And if you are reading this as an accompaniment to the TV show, then you probably already have that background so could land in any of these books and have fun. Definitely tailored to a bedtime story or read aloud situation.

Okay so maybe this makes more sense for someone with kids who watch this show, but based on the cover and the title, I assumed this was a one-off. Which is on me, personally, however the premise made little sense (it had children’s show fantastical humor to it, so unless you expect that it’s absurd to follow along with the plot) and the art style… sure is drawn on the page. I feel like there could’ve been more effort to translate the show characters in a way that doesn’t make them so scary and soulless looking, but this is also based on my personal preference. Like said, this is gonna be a fine book for people whose kids like this show, but just coming into this without that background knowledge and interest doesn’t serve this kind of book.