Kitten Cousins

Okay, truth time: growing up, I used to tell other kids in the schoolyard I was part cat. I was like seven, okay? I don't really know why I told people that or why I wanted it to be true with a sort of quiet desperation, except that I loved cats. Adored them. Had a cat-themed wallpaper border up in my bedroom sort of love (remember those?). I wasn't allowed to have one myself until a few years later, so I guess they took on a somewhat mythologic sense of importance to me. I just thought they were like, the ultimate in cool (they still kind of are—James Dean ain't got nothing on felines).

Long story short, this book probably would have been right up my alley as a youngster.*

It's a Choose Your Adventure style book where you are a cat. Every frame of this graphic novel, drawn and written by Sherwin Tjia, is drawn from a cat's perspective, and you make decisions about what to do. Is this a "nap in a sunbeam" sort of day? Should you chase a squirrel? Fight another cat? Hang out with your owners? The choice is yours.

(Charlie, is that you??)
All images via Tjia's set of illustrations

This is such a cute idea, and I can think of a couple people for whom this would make a perfect little Christmas gift (coughLauracough). As the back cover says, "It's a brand new Caturday! What are you going to do? Unlike dogs, you do what you want!" That's so true, man, so true. 

If you're in Toronto, there's a booklaunch party at the Drake Hotel on November 5 that is sure to have lots of cool cats and kittens in attendance. You can meet the author, find out about his illustrations and story process, and hear about other projects he's got going on.

Check here with the publisher, Conundrum Press, for more info, including ordering a copy for your very own.

*This is rated as mature content, so probably not. Or maybe, and I just would've learned about the birds and the bees a little earlier.