Kitten Construction Company: Meet the House Kittens (Kitten Construction Company, 1)

My son has autism, but loves reading. He especially loves comic books, or anything with good usage of text. He absolutely adores this book, to the point of bringing it to school with him several times so he can read it back and forth on the school bus. When we first got the book, he would point at me and his father and shout, "You're fired!"Thank you for creating such a cute story.

We were first intorduced to this. Ook at Baltimore Comicon 2018 (this year). My son fell in love with this book, but for various reasons we didnt get back to the booth to buy it. So we got it for him for Christmas, he recognized the book right away and did an adorable 6 year old dance. Thank you for this amazing book.My daughters, age 8 and 11 also enjoyed it!

My son reads at a 5th grade level at 7. Finding books that aren't "too adult" in theme for him while giving him the opportunity to see larger words in context is not the easiest. He loves this book. Looking forward to the sequel.

Terrific and fun graphic novel. No chapters so be prepared to find you own breaks or read through in one sitting.

John Patrick Green put a surprising animal into the job market in Hippopotamister, and it was fun. His next book, Kitten Construction Company: Meet the House Kittens, uses even cuter animals in even weirder work.The city wants to build a new mayor’s mansion. Marmalade, an orange cat, is an architect and provides the best design, but the (human) city planner rejects it because it was provided by a “cute little kitten”. He says, “I regret that you are just too adorable to be taken seriously.”Marmalade is determined. She meets another cat who happens to be an electrical engineer, but he can only get work as a dishwasher. They team up and persevere through a number of obstacles to follow their dreams. Mostly, they can’t do what they want — and are trained — to do because everyone is distracted by how adorable they are. No one will acknowledge that the cats know what they’re doing because of how they look. (But they will hire them for grunt work.) This isn’t a totally bad problem to have, since the reader will agree, they are very cute. (We’re part of the problem!)The fantasy of cats doing construction jobs is silly fun, but the emotions run the gamut, as the reader shares Marmalade’s frustration at wanting to use her training and degree but being told she can’t. Determination, creativity, and teamwork are fine messages, but how did a cat in a people world get an architecture degree, anyway? Wouldn’t she have run into this issue during that process? (If I am overthinking, it’s because I sympathized with and was rooting for Marmalade and her friends that much.)The story has a simplified layout, with most pages having only one or two panels, but the images are dense with detail. The one-panel pages are reserved for the most important or cutest images, with kittens licking plates clean or working construction wearing hard hats. (Review originally published at ComicsWorthReading.com. The publisher provided a digital review copy.)

Brought to you by OBS reviewer AndraI must say, I enjoyed this graphic novel. Of course, since it involved kittens, how could I not enjoy it? The cover of the book was so cute. In fact – the graphics were quite engaging.Marmalade (along with a bevy of other kitten’s) just wanted to build things. When the powers that be at City Hall decided to construct a new mayor’s mansion, they needed to get an architect… so Marmalade presented her plans for the project. Unfortunately, the city planner could only see Marmalade as a “cute little kitten”. She was frequently considered too adorable to be taken seriously. That did rankle me a wee bit since one should be judged on their professional/work merit and not dismissed due to being adorable or cute. Basically, a good story of discrimination…”no one takes you seriously when you’re a kitten.” -> a common comment throughout the story. Okay, enough of a rant….carrying on…Another point which I found a bit disturbing was in the beginning when Sampson decided to join forces with Marmalade but needed to finish out his shift at the diner was that Marmalade and Sampson licked the plates clean…if that was the way the diner cleaned its dishes – yuck.Seems that many “professional” kittens in the city were not getting taken seriously so they all joined forces (creating the Kitten Construction Company) and created a wonderful, safe mayor’s mansion. The comradery along with the hard work definitely sent a positive message. I loved how they all worked seamlessly and with purpose until the project was complete.A number of the comments were priceless –for example:“Sounds like you’ve got an itch you can’t scratch”.Certainly a number of references which are for the more mature reader. For example when Marmalade’s plans are rejected by the city planner:“I need to drown my sorrows.One saucer of milk! And keep ‘em coming!”All in all – an enjoyable read with a number of great messages and entertaining graphics for the younger reader. I think this graphic novel will be a winner!

Awesome.