The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris
The Summer Reading Program at Joplin Public Library comes to a close this weekend. What a summer! Altogether, we had almost 1,500 participants in the reading challenge. In the Children’s Department alone, we hosted almost 120 programs. Our theme this summer was “Adventure Begins at Your Library.” My last review was about an adventure-based picture book; with the end of summer reading on the horizon, I would like to share a rollicking adventure in graphic novel form.
I have intended to read The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza for several years now. The book began as a weekly virtual book club during the COVID lockdown. Mac Barnett hosted a weekly meeting called “Mac’s Book Club Book Show” where he would read from his books and bring in special guests; a dress code was always encouraged. During these meetings, Barnett and Shawn Harris began a series of live weekly cartoons. Thus, The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza was born. Thankfully, they turned it into a book that we can all enjoy.
The book is reminiscent of the ever popular Dog Man books but never derivative. The main character is a cat who doesn’t speak yet is tasked with saving the moon. His sidekick is a talkative robot (LOZ 4000) whose main job in life thus far has been to clip the toenails of an evil genius. When the cat and the robot arrive on the moon, they embark on a journey with the queen to stop the Rat King from eating the moon. The government official monitoring the situation from Earth regularly makes exclamations like “Oh my Uncle Tony’s Hot Calzoney” and “Oh my wrinkly pinkie toe.” This story is ridiculous in the best way. Some children’s humor is just for children— and that’s okay— but some transcends. The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza falls into the second camp.
Shawn Harris’ illustrations are perfect for this book. The facial expressions are humorous yet simple, and the color spreads throughout the different chapters typically use just a few colors but manage to bring the setting alive. I appreciate Harris’ depiction of light in various scenes. A scene featuring the queen talking to the man on the moon shows a shaft of light reflecting on pillars in an impressively realistic way.
Talking about this book is really fun and reading it is even more so. I would recommend this book to elementary-aged readers who enjoy funny books. I would especially recommend this to young Dog Man fans who have read and reread all 12 titles in the series. I would also recommend this to anyone who appreciates absurdist humor. I suppose I would recommend this to just about anyone. Lucky for us, the sequel The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom was recently published. Happy reading!
