Reviews: Me and my Cat?

This review appeared in Publishers Weekly [March 20, 2000 v247 i12 p91].

   Although not as unpredictable as his hard-boiled Sheep in Wolves' Clothing, this latest by Kitamura spotlights an offbeat sense of humor and a flair for comic-book layout. At first, it appears as though a dark-haired boy, Nicholas, narrates the story, while his yellow cat sits quietly in the foreground.

But at breakfast, Nicholas buries his head in a cat-food dish until his mother "carr[ies] me off to catch the school bus. I had gone... but I was still here." Only then does Nicholas realize that he and his cat have exchanged physical identities. The "real" Nicholas, in the cat's body, spends the day accidentally toppling furniture and battling the tomcats next door. "Life was as complicated and tough as it was for humans," he discovers.

Kitamura devotes several amusing spreads to imagining how a cat would inhabit a human body and vice versa. He contains these chaotic scenes in a tense, tightly controlled black-ink line and tints them with lush midnight-violet, fern-green and golden-ochre watercolors.

"An old lady in a pointed hat" solves the dilemma in a conventional way, but the tale provides entertainment--particularly on the repetitive panels in which the boy wears a cat's impenetrable, miffed expression. Ages 4-8.

Catfka for kids. This review first appeared in The Guardian, 8 February, 2000. By Vivian French.

   When Nicholas awakes one morning after troubled dreams, he finds himself turned into a cat... Satoshi Kitamara's Me And My Cat? is a colourful take on metamorphosis.

"Late one night an old lady in a pointed hat came in through the bedroom window..." It's a fabulous beginning (don't miss it; it comes before the title page) to a tale of a boy and his cat who are magicked into changing places. The resulting chaos is related both in words and pictures; the story is wonderfully quirky, and has a beautifully unexpected ending. Role reversal is given a whole new treatment, and as well as being extremely funny there is also a real appreciation of the feelings of a mother whose son suddenly thinks the radiator is irresistible and who is potty about the cat's toilet.

It's a great book to share with your favourite child (and cat); not only is it delightful to read aloud, but there's so much to look at in the pictures that bedtime may get very late indeed. Oh - there's a lovely detail for the grown-ups. Check out the pictures on the walls of Nicholas's house. FUN!  Age 3+

This review is was first published in The Independent, 6 November, 1999. By Sally Williams.

   Me and My Cat? The reason for the question mark becomes clear after the first few pages. A visit from a "an old lady in a pointed hat" results in Nicholas and his cat, Leonardo, swapping bodies. Not as original or off-the- wall as Kitamura can be, but fans will not be disappointed. It still delivers some quirky gems: Nicholas licking his jumper clean is especially amusing.

This review is by Brendan King, a freelance editor, translator and reviewer.

   Me and My Cat? is the latest book from Satoshi Kitamura, who can always be relied on to take a disturbingly sideways view of life. It describes how young Nicholas is visited by a witch who switches his body with his cat’s.

At first, Nicholas doesn’t realise what has happened, and is most indignant when his mother pulls him away from the cat’s breakfast bowl. It’s only when he finds himself thoughtfully pulling his own whiskers that the ghastly truth dawns. He leaps into the washbasin and finds himself staring into the bathroom mirror at his cat, Leonardo. He discovers that the cat world is not a cosy one.

Bruised and battered, he returns home only to see his own body, now inhabited by Leonardo, trying to get into the cat flap…whatever next? You’ll never guess – for you never can with Kitamura.