Author: John Patrick Green
Illustrator: John Patrick Green
© Date: 2018
Publisher: First Second
Pages: 70
Chapters: No
Illustrations: Yes, graphic novel
Publisher Recommended Age: 6-10 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Not really, but shows Original Character Designs
Summary from Book:
All Marmalade wants to do is build things.
She is, after all, a trained architect.
She’s also a distractingly adorable kitten.
Fed up with not being taken seriously because she’s so cute, Marmalade bands together with a handful of other aspiring builders—all of them kittens. But in a world where humans call the shots, can the Kitten Construction Company prove their worth…without giving up the very things that make them kittens?
(Don’t worry, dear reader, the answer is definitely “yes”!)
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: Past me thought that having everything filled out in the review would help me remember how I felt about this book. Well, joke is on current me, I do not remember. I think this one was alright and demonstrated the importance of looking below the surface for job qualifications. Unfortunately for the cute kittens, I cannot remember much past that they were cute and had good construction skills.
Family Unit: No families are mentioned, just kittens moving on from their original jobs where they are not being valued
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Kittens wanting to have other jobs (architect, plumber, electrician, etc), but not being taken seriously because they are cute
Positive Items:
- The kittens prove that having the properly skilled person for the job means that a job can be done well, hooray for no bathtubs on ceilings.
- The kittens do not get discouraged by the lack of respect that they receive, they use their abilities for a project that needed to be completed.
- The City Planner apologizes for not taking the kittens seriously.
Items of Interest:
- Marmalade took blueprints to the city planner’s office for the mayor’s mansion. The city planner did not take Marmalade’s plans because a cute little kitten could not be the architect for a very important project.
- Sampson could not get work as an engineer because no one would take him seriously either. He quits his dishwasher job to start an all-kitten construction firm with Marmalade.
- To get his last paycheck, Sampson needs to finish his dishwashing, so Marmalade helps him.
- Bubbles has a thing for pipes and really wants to be a plumber, so she joins Marmalade and Sampson.
- The kitten trio thinks that they got jobs at a construction site, but they realize that they are just doing busy work. When they go to complain, they see the shoddy plans for the mayor’s mansion that is being built at that site. They try to point out that the plans are bad, but no one will listen.
- Professor von Wigglebottom is tired of not being taken seriously and wants to be a carpenter. He helps the other kittens find a construction site and more kittens to work.
- In the end, the shoddy mansion falls in front of the mayor. The City Planner takes the mayor to the kitten construction house. No one believes that the cute kittens built it. The City Planner apologizes for not taking the kittens more seriously and asks them to help with the next big construction project.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book 2 – Kitten Construction Company: A Bridge Too Fur