Bad Kitty Takes the Test

September 15, 2016
How good is Bad Kitty at actually being a cat?Bad Kitty loves birds, but when she climbs a tree to play with two of them, it ends in a disastrous fall from the treetops. She rethinks her opinion of birds. The incident triggers a letter from the Society of Cat Aptitude Management; her cat license is being revoked for a series of "shameful un-catlike embarrassments"--such as the time she "woke up suddenly and fell behind the sofa" or when she "tried to jump on the desk but landed in the plants." Not to mention that time the dog sat on her head when she was asleep. According to SCAM, Kitty must take a special class and then pass a test to get her cat license back. Kitty is not amused. The next day, she joins Chatty Kitty, an odd-looking cat named Mittens (a chicken with fake cat ears), and Uncle Murray (who thinks he's in class to renew his driver's license) for a course taught by Strange Kitty. They watch a specious video created by the test makers, TestPro, full of oddball cat facts, before the first of many pretests begins. The final test (administered by a chicken) couldn't be more surprising. Bruel's obvious anti-standardized-test agenda doesn't tarnish Bad Kitty's appeal in her 10th chapter-book appearance. Standardized-test companies may want to hurl hairballs, but the loopy humor and silly kitty cast will have fans purring with laughter. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-12)

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January 1, 2018
The Society of Cat Aptitude has revoked trouble-making Kitty's cat license, and she must take a test to get it back. After hours of preparation, she's ready...but the proctor is a chicken who's part of a plot to control the world. With its skewering of standardized testing, the absurdist (and occasionally informational, with facts interspersed) graphic narrative is one of the long-running series' stronger episodes.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)