KITTY SWEET TOOTH

Kitty rejuvenates an aging movie theater by converting it to a combination movie house and restaurant.

When Kitty Sweet Tooth—a purple cat who loves sweets and (fortunately) visiting the dentist—learns that Pop-Pop’s considering selling his movie theater, she begs him not to and pitches screenings with paired movies and sweets. He gives her one month as manager to try it out. To help with the culinary confections, Kitty recruits Dr. Battina (a pink bat—not a mad scientist, just misunderstood) and her collaborator, a green-skinned humanoid witch named Walter. After spiffing the theater up (with both hard work and magic), the team holds a showing each week, the food going wrong in a mild way (usually resulting in large quantities of sweets supersizing to flood the theater) and the heroes having to think quickly (and get extra mouths) to fix it. Though the storyline is repetitive and low-stakes, the vibrant, full-color palette and the silly dessert action (and parody puns for adults reading along—Planet of the Crepes, anyone?) result in stress-free escapism for sensitive readers. The art’s cartoony and clear, showing off a wide variety of cutely rounded animals, and it uses occasional breaks from panels for strategic (and charming) double-page spreads. After their trial month of successes, Pop-Pop decides to keep the theater; as a sequel hook, Kitty announces she’ll make a movie of her own. Instructions for DIY rock candy close the experience.

A sugar-sweet burst of sunshine for new readers.