In this corner we have Big Guy, who’s bored with every book I bring home and isn’t fond of fiction.

In this corner we have Boots, who could devour Step 3 books if he wanted to, but he doesn’t want to because the stories bore him. Curious George bailed us out for a while, especially after the Kindle came home and I could boost the type size enough to create the illusion of fewer words and eliminate the intimidation factor of “too much text on the page.” But we’ve run out of monkey stories.

Enter “Bad Kitty,” which by the numbers is way too hard for Boots – but he can buddy read the cartoon-rich stories with relative ease and scant assistance. Technically, it’s way too easy for Big Guy – but he gets a kick out of the “Uncle Murray’s Fun Facts” interludes between cartoons. Plus you have the sibling rivalry factor. Because I bought the books for Boots, Big Guy must covet them as sure as he’d hang over our shoulders as we read Curious George every evening.

Entertaining enough for Boots and informative enough for Big Guy. Boots gets the ego stroke of reading a chapter book, while Big Guy gets to horn in. It’s perfect. “Bad Kitty” author Nick Bruel is a genius who has solved all my problems in life but one. Now if he could get them to eat more vegetables …

That’s probably a lost cause, though. Witness the dido Bad Kitty pulled in “Cat-Nipped” when she discovered that all her favorite foods were gone and she’d have to subsist on asparagus, beets, cauliflower and so on, all through the alphabet. Only when her preferred menu is restored does she apologize for her antics. Come to think of it,  she reminds me of the guys.

The best part of Bad Kitty: It’s entertaining for me, too. Witness this passage from “Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty” that was lost on the guys but nonetheless brought back memories of them, me and Christmas decorations:

“Okay, Kitty … Why don’t you help me put this incredibly delicate and valuable glass birthday vase that’s been in my family for a dozen generations onto the mantel?

“On second thought, maybe I’ll just leave this in the box.”

The  bad thing about Bad Kitty is that there are only five chapter books.  We’re going to need more soon!

Copyright 2011 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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