July 25th 2023 by Chronicle Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Fifth grader Poppy is trying out for the middle school play with three of her best friends, Henri, Rosario, and Kit. They hope to get secondary roles as dancing ponies, figuring that the 8th graders will get speaking parts in their drama teacher's production of Circus Animal Tricks, Riddles, and Songs. They hope to avoid being cast as dogs. Poppy doesn't really want to be in the play at all, and doesn't dance very well, which sometimes ends veyr poorly. She has a cat, Mitten Man, whose life seems so much better. Mitten Man doesn't have to do homework that involves recreating a solar eclipse on paper, does he? After recieving a special collar for her cat, Poppy makes a wish, and ends up switching bodies. "Big Poppy", as Poppy refers to her body while Mitten Man inhabits it, is fearless. He not only auditions for the play, but gets an even larger role. Since he has an innate sense of cat superiority, he tries to make a splash for his human by making new friends and having new experiences. There are plenty of cat like moments, of course, when he asks to change seats so he can sit in the sun, although naps in school are discourages. It's hard for Poppy to inhabit Mitten Man's body, since she has to poop in a box and deal with Death Tiger, a neighborhood stray who often comes around and presents her with dead birds. This is a constant source of tension between the two as they struggle to find a way to go back to their own bodies. When Poppy gets lost as a cat, Mitten Man is worried that the switch is permanent. When the two are reunited, will they be able to figure out the clue to returning to their own bodies?
Strengths: There are many more dog adventure books than cat adventure ones, mainly because cats don't seem as inclined to save humans. If a cat were in a human body, however, I think that their superior attitude would play out exactly as Tracy describes! There are just enough details about what it is like to spend the day as a cat to be interesting but not gross, and the fun comes from seeing Mitten Man acting like a 5th grader! I have plenty of readers who adore cats, and this might be something that Hunter's Warrior Gang series can be handed that might encourage them to read something else!
Weaknesses: There were a lot of cat details, and the book was a little longer than some middle grade titles. While readers who like cats will enjoy this, I wasn't as fond of it.
What I really think: I like Tracy's more YA books, and her Bessica Lefter series, and this was quite a different style for her. Fun to watch authors stretch a bit. Keep this one around to hand to students wearing cat ears or shirts with sequined felines.
Strengths: There are many more dog adventure books than cat adventure ones, mainly because cats don't seem as inclined to save humans. If a cat were in a human body, however, I think that their superior attitude would play out exactly as Tracy describes! There are just enough details about what it is like to spend the day as a cat to be interesting but not gross, and the fun comes from seeing Mitten Man acting like a 5th grader! I have plenty of readers who adore cats, and this might be something that Hunter's Warrior Gang series can be handed that might encourage them to read something else!
Weaknesses: There were a lot of cat details, and the book was a little longer than some middle grade titles. While readers who like cats will enjoy this, I wasn't as fond of it.
What I really think: I like Tracy's more YA books, and her Bessica Lefter series, and this was quite a different style for her. Fun to watch authors stretch a bit. Keep this one around to hand to students wearing cat ears or shirts with sequined felines.
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