Review by Booklist Review
Pinkwater fans know to expect absurd situations, wry humor, and zany mayhem, and this latest picture book does not disappoint. Kat Hats, a company that rents cats trained to morph into designer headgear for humans, boasts a star employee, Thermal Herman 6 7/8ths. One night Old Thirdbeard appears at owner Matt Katz's door, announcing that his mother, Chickarina the Witch, has disappeared on Witch's Spitz mountain without her hat while eating an enormous Popsicle. Old Thirdbeard fears she may have succumbed to brain freeze! In a flash, Herman is racing up the mountain, catching rides on unsuspecting heads along the way by transforming into a motorcycle helmet and a handsome fedora, until he finally reaches Chickarina and revives her by becoming a pointy witch's hat. Renier's vivid gouache illustrations feature bold, in-your-face hues and busy, detail-filled compositions that extend the text and invite protracted viewing. Readers will especially appreciate the purple-haired, green-skinned Chickarina, whose brain freeze is depicted in a medical-style cutaway. Thermal Herman's movements are also apt, especially the final spread which depicts him snoozing on a basket of warm laundry. This ridiculous adventure will be catnip to feline-lovers and those with an offbeat sense of humor.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This loopy tale from previous collaborators Pinkwater and Renier (Adventures of a Dwergish Girl) is predicated on the factoid that "90 percent of body heat is lost through the top of the head." To remedy the situation, a yellow-haired, pink-skinned entrepreneur named Matt Katz rents out trained cats of "unusual furriness and warmth," which form themselves into highly specialized chapeaus for "mountain climbers, adventurers, Arctic explorers, and people living in Chicago." When a green-skinned witch friend of the Katz family (which includes wife Glamorella as well as children Pocketmouse and Lambkin, all brown skinned) becomes stranded up a mountain with a possible brain freeze (she was last seen eating "an extra-large jumbo frozen fruitsicle"), Katz dispatches a huge and resourceful marmalade puss named Thermal Herman 6 7/8ths, "warmest cat ever known." The cat forms itself into a witch's hat in a wonderful vignette of balletic moves, while the wealth of meandering character-driven asides and the story's densely colored gouache drawings are packed with details both on point and amusingly extraneous. It's worldbuilding at its most absurd. Ages 4--8. Author's agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Feb
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Matt Katz is the owner of Kat Hats Incorporated, a training facility where a cat can be "patiently taught to arrange itself on the head of a person as a living headpiece." When Thirdbeard's elderly mother, Chickarina, goes missing on a snowy evening, he enlists the help of Matt Katz. Thirdbeard fears that his Mommy, who happens to be a nice, harmless witch, will suffer from brain freeze since she was last seen eating "an extra-large jumbo frozen fruitsicle, blueberry and avocado flavor," and walking hatless up a steep mountain known as Witch's Spitz. Luckily, Matt's beloved and most successful kat hat, Thermal Herman 6⅞ths, has only just returned from a trip to Nepal. With one look from Matt, Thermal Herman 6⅞ths rushes out into the falling night. Aided by a madcap motorcyclist and a random moose who is "using his antlers as a hat rack" for some unspecified reason, the plucky cat saves Chickarina and brings her home, warmly hatted. This zany picture book is delightfully replete with straight-faced nonsense and atypical characters, many of whom have green skin and long, pointy noses. White, androgynous Matt wears colorful, mismatched socks and is husband to the always-fly, brown-skinned Glamorella, whose clothing and hairstyle change in every scene. Their son, Pocketmouse, an aspiring magician, uses a wheelchair made out of a charcoal barrel grill, and their daughter, Lambkin, wears a jester's costume and is forever performing circus tricks. The bright and busy gouache illustrations are chock-full of offbeat, whimsical details that tell parallel stories of their own. Flamboyantly fanciful and so much fun! (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
