Katie the Catsitter: Secrets and Sidekicks

Author: Colleen AF Venable
Illustrator: Stephanie Yue

© Date: 2023
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Pages: 211
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, graphic novel
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Yes, author/illustrator information details, sketch pad of characters with comments, friendship bracelet instructions

Summary from Book: Super Heroes – Super Drama?!

What’s better than BFFs? Super sidekick BFFs! Katie can’t wait to have Beth join her for sidekick training! Until…it turns out Beth might be a way better sidekick than Katie! And now Beth and Marie are hanging out all the time. Jess is acting super weird, and Katie still needs to tell her mom about being a sidekick. Oh yeah, and giant robots are attacking the city. So. That’s not great.

Can Katie and 217 super-unusual cats work together to save the city (and seventh grade)? Or is Katie about to be in super trouble?

Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.

Page Pig Thoughts: This one has a lot of friendship drama, being jealous of things your friends can do or seem to do well that you may be having confidence issues with. Also secrets being kept from parents plays a big role in this one (Katie from her mom and Madeline from her parents). And in the end, secrets that parents keep from their children (Jess has super villain parents). Even with the drama, it’s still an enjoyable read with Page Pup thumbs up.

Family Unit: Katie lives with her mom. Katie’s best friend Bethany lives with her mother and father.

Conflict/Social Issues:

The Mousetress has been committing crimes to save animals. Something bad to do something good.
Katie hadn’t told her mom about training with Madeline/Mousetress. Katie’s mom finds out and gets upset.
Madeline never told her parents about being The Mousetress.
Beth is initially unhappy because her mother, Stainless Steel, won’t let her do sidekick training.
Katie is jealous of Beth. Beth is jealous of Katie.
Katie was not being a good friend to Jess.

Positive Items:

Honesty prevails and secrets being hidden from parents are revealed.
Jess does not seem too upset that her parents were supervillains so she has to move in with her cousins in Chicago.
Katie and Beth are honest with each other, which keeps their friendship strong.
Katie makes peace with her own strengths and weaknesses.
Katie’s mom will be able to spend more time with Katie, which her previous job was preventing her from doing. She seems happy to be more of the type of mother that she wanted to be.

Items of Interest:

Katie’s mom works nights, so Katie is left alone a lot. Katie’s mom has a hard time staying awake to hang out with Katie, even though she really wants to.
Katie is excited to start sidekick training with the Mousetress (aka Madeline). Beth is jealous because her mom (aka Stainless Steel) won’t let her start sidekick training until she’s 35. Beth is jealous that Katie’s mom is cool with her starting sidekick training, but it turns out that Katie has not told her mother about the whole sidekick thing.
Beth and her boyfriend broke up.
Giant robots are trying to take over/destroy New York City. Most of them hit an error before they really do much of anything.
Katie believes the eccentric billionaire Benito Benton is actually the Owl Guy. Both Benito and Owl Guy have not been seen around town for a long time. Benito Benton also happens to be Mr. B’s brother.
Madeline/Mousetress tells Katie about her starting as Mousetress. Her parents did not approve of superheroes like Super Carl. Since Madeline is a black woman, when the media saw footage of her first protest, they decided that she must be a villain. She has never told her parents about being the Mousetress.
Marie and the other Wheel-las let Beth join their skateboarding group. Katie gets a little jealous because Beth and Marie hit it off with shared book interests.
At school, Jess is starting to feel like the third wheel to Beth and Katie.
Stainless Steel/Beth’s mom talks about her parents supporting her and wanting her to be a superhero. Which makes her realize that she should support Beth and agrees to let her sidekick train once a week.
Katie finds sidekick training very challenging. So she is rather jealous when Beth flies through sidekick training with ease.
Beth’s dad continues to be oblivious to everything while he reads the paper and does crossword puzzles. He manages to realize that he is marries to Stainless Steel.
Chief Pardo decided to change careers from a police officer to working at the animal rescue. He mentions that someone has been taking donations for animal rescue but does not have a physical location, Madeline and Katie look into it.
Katie and Madeline expose the scamming animal rescue place.
Madeline and Katie take some cats home. They had been at the animal rescue too long. They are waiting to see what their special talents are.
We particularly enjoyed the cameo by Sasspants the guinea pig (Guinea Pig Private Eye also by Colleen AF Venable and illustrated by Stephanie Yue).
Katie’s mom gets fried from her job when a developer takes over the building. She is excited to go to college and takes a computer programming class from Jess’s dad. Katie’s mom is also happy to be home more because the robots around town mean that it isn’t safe for Katie to be home alone so much.
Katie’s mom is happy to join her for a night of catsitting at Madeline’s. Which means that Katie and Madeline need to change their plans for the evening.
Katie’s mom walks in on sidekick training to discover that Madeline is the Mousetress. She is upset that Madeline is training Katie to be a villain sidekick. She is mad at Madeline. She is angry with Katie for going behind her back. She realizes that Beth’s mom is Stainless Steel and that everyone in the apartment building seems to be a hero/villain.
Beth admits that she was jealous of Katie because she was doing sidekick training and had made friends with the Wheel-las. She says that she won’t train with Madeline anymore. That breaks the iciness in the friendship, so Katie and Beth go back to friends again.
Madeline makes a short video for Katie’s mom to convince her that sidekick training is safer than she thinks. She asks for Katie and her mom to support her while she video chats with her parents and tells them that she is Mousetress. Her parents are upset thinking that they are parents of a villain and hang up the call. Which prompts Katie’s mom to agree to sidekick training, if she can participate for awhile and see how safe it is.
Katie apologizes to Jess for not being a great friend. She makes her a friendship bracelet and they hang out at Jess’s house. Katie stumbles on a secret room that revels Jess’s parents as the villains making the robots that have been attacking town.
Madeline gets a disguise to stop Jess’s parents. She wonders why superheroes wear underwear on the outside. Katie panics and calls her Cheesy Justice, Madeline is not the biggest fan of that name.
Jess tries to talk sense into her parents and stop their master robot plan. Her parents are upset about being fired from Buttersoft Bionics and seeking revenge. Cheesy Justice springs into action, and the cops arrest Jess’s parents. Jess moves to live with cousins in Chicago.
Cheesy Justice becomes a top ranked superhero.
Katie, Beth, and Marie go to pop-con together.

Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):

Katie the Catsitter (Book 1) [review]
Katie the Catsitter: Best Friends for Never (Book 2) [review]
Katie the Catsitter: Secrets and Sidekicks (Book 3)
Katie the Catsitter: The Purrfect Plan (Book 4) [review]

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