The Wrath of the Paperclip (The First Cat in Space #3)

Barnett, Mac and Harris, Shawn. The Wrath of the Paperclip

November 5, 2024 by HarperAlley
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In this third book in the pell mell, absurd-fest that started in The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza and The Soup of Doom, we catch up with the Queen of the Moon and her minions, who are happy to be out and about solving minor problems and don't want to be saving the world. Of course, they are immediately met with a problem: an ancient evil has arisen and only the first cat can stop it! CheckMate, a grammar and spelling assistant, has attained sentience and is determined to save society from itself by killing all carbon based life forms so they can no longer sign their holiday cards "The Smith's". This sends are characters all over, including digging a pit on the moon and reconnecting with Loz. Loz has used his isolation to write a graphic novel series called Pool Sharks, some of which is presented. Eventually, they decide that in order to take down CheckMate, they need to get a virus into his system, although there is also a reset button. Since First Cat has been reduced to a mewling kitten when CheckMate steals his suit, how on Earth will CheckMate be stopped? A teaser for a fourth book is at the end. 

Strengths: It's much easier to review this series when I have a physical book, since navigating pages on an E Reader takes so long, but this book must be celebrated, if only for this assessment of Tolkien's The Silmarillion by Loz, who says "Even though I've read more than 35 million stories I was not able to get through [The Silmarillion]!" It is indeed like an encyclopedia written by elves! I'm not sure that young readers will understand the whole backstory to Microsoft Office's Clippy, and the thought that artificial intelligence would take over the world... wait, maybe they will! There are plenty of jokes for older readers, (as well as a brief foray in to 8 Bit style animation) and even a nice message in the Pool Sharks comics, aimed at adults who are described as liking books more when they have those messages. Droll, Barnett and Harris. Droll. Of course, more readers pick up these books because they are beyond goofy, and chock full of weirdness and action. 
Weaknesses: Since the series is about a cat, wouldn't it have made more sense to have an evil villain based off the dog Office Assistant Rocky rather than Clippy? I love Rocky. I miss him. 
What I really think: I'll be ordering this one, even though the earlier versions were teetering right on the Pilkey Line and almost fell onto the elementary side. Clippy, the Tolkien reference and other in jokes just begged to be explained to interested middle school readers.