KITTENS ARE MONSTERS!

A Chihuahua babysits kittens in exchange for a promised army of minions.

Directly following the events of Poodle of Doom (2022), this third series entry sees future Dark Lord Ember on “a night of DESTINY.” He strikes a deal with a mysterious orange cat, agreeing to not only watch her kittens, but train them in the ways of evil. Ember’s lust for power comes at a bad time, though—his human Lucy Chin’s eighth birthday is three days away, and he needs to find her the perfect present. Before he can scheme up a solution with the other Chin family pets, a box of kittens appears in the yard. Worse, Ogre—a neighborhood cat with a sourpuss attitude—seems intent on sabotaging everything. All signs point to cat-astrophe unless Ember and friends can save the day—and find Lucy the right gift. Tan Shiau Wei’s black-and-white illustrations complement the laugh-out-loud chaos with cinematic cartoon scenes. Lucy’s birthday-planning conversations lightly touch on fears of classmates yucking her yum (red bean and green tea ice cream). Tan deftly steers the plot—and other kids’ responses—into an affirming rather than othering experience. The Chin family is cued Chinese. Party attendees are diverse in skin tone and include Lucy’s brown-skinned friend Arjun and his two dads.

A furball of nonstop feline fun.