REVIEW: The Cats Who Wanted More
Read our review about this New Children’s Picture book The Cats Who Wanted More, a lockdown inspired story about greedy cats and fake news, taking young readers on a learning journey to understand what happens when people take a great deal more than they need.
We were recently sent a copy of The Cats Who Wanted More children’s book in return for us sharing our honest thoughts with you, so read on to see what the kids thought and if we think this should be the next new addition to your child’s book collection.
The Storyline of The Cats Who Wanted More
This new children’s book tells the story of how during lockdown all the cats, who were initially annoyed that all the humans were staying home, very quickly learnt from their shopping habits and copied them.
Whilst the cats were annoyed by the mess the humans were making with all the extra hours they were now spending at home, they did love all the extra food in the houses, which made them want more. When all the cats saw how the humans were ordering their food via the internet, it gave them an idea to do the same, but this too made them greedy and they started hiding the food meaning there was none left for the mice and rats to eat.
The cats got so greedy that they even turned the rats against the mice writing fake notes to each of them but as they are about to fight they realise what the cats have done and decide to get their revenge of the greedy cats and steal back the food from the cats while they sleep.
The funny part is when the cats wake up to see what the mice and rats are up to and chase them but get stuck in the cat flaps not able to move as they have grown so big with all the food they have been eating.
To make sure this doesn’t happen again all the rats and mice chew through the internet cables so the cats cant order any more food, letting life return to normal.
The Illustrations in The Cats Who Wanted More
The Cats Who Wanted More children’s book is illustrated by Naomi Tipping, a freelance illustrator based in Nottingham.
Having studied illustration at Loughborough University and graduating in 2003 Naomi has illustrated for a range of publishing and editorial clients, before the release of this The Cats Who Wanted More.
Naomi loves to combine drawing, texture and collage, to create fun, bright, mainly figurative thought provoking illustrations, with a handmade feel. She can often be found with her sketchbook in and around the city.
The artwork in this book is almost as if they have been drawn onto every page rather than it being printed on the pages, as you can see all the pencil lines, making the images very relatable to children.
Each page is crammed full with detail from edge to edge and with a repetitive red, black and white colour palette appearing page to page.
The illustrations visually really help to tell the story. The kids thought that the pictures were funny, with cats wearing headphones and cats pooping on the treadmill.
Some of the pages the kids specifically talked about was when all the cats were watching with one eye open watching the humans on the computers, this was a memory kids actually have of lockdown with cats sitting on laps, or next to laptop screen while parents had to work.
They thought it was sneaky how the cats sent fake notes in the walls to the mice and down the toilets to the rats. Again relating to the images with the paper face coverings flowing in the sewers as they have seen them littering the streets over the months.
The double page cut through of the house showing all the cats partying and eating did make the kids giggle especially the cat sitting on the loo while stuffing his face with food.
We all also loved the little touch of how the inside front cover of the book is covered with the pictures of many cats faces and the back cover is full of many cats bottoms and tails, all the kids found this very amusing.
About the Author of The Cats Who Wanted More
The Cats Who Wanted More is written by Katie Sahota who is passionate about inclusion, equality, health and wellbeing and also the author of the Little Glow book also published with Owlet Press.
Katie Sahota is a passionate writer and avid reader that has spent 20 years as a public servant, after studying English Language, Linguistics and achieving a BSc in Computing.
As a mum of mixed race children and spending years working in gender-biased career, Katie loves to use the power of writing to tackle important issues, such as identity, inclusion and race. Which explains a lot to why there is an underlying theme to this story about capitalism and greed, not the usual subject to be covered in a children’s picture book, but certainly one that the adults reading with their kids will pick up on.
Would we Recommend The Cats Who Wanted More for Your Child?
We loved reading this book with the kids and felt every time we did we saw something new in the pictures and the kids had more and more ideas of what they would have done if they were one of the rodents, to bring the cats down.
As parents we do love reading books with the kids that has underlying lessons and the issue over the sneaky letters was a huge talking point with the kids. It made them think about some the non truthful things people sometimes might do when they want something so much like the greedy cats.
The quality of the book is fab, nice think pages, not flimsy and perfectly sized for little hands to hold and turn the pages of.
We would 100% recommend this greedy Cats story for families to read with their kids and if you want to check this book out, then you can get your very own copy of The Cats Who Wanted More at WHSmith for £7.35
