Negative Cat is a 2021 picture book by Sophie Blackall. As I’ve previously mentioned, I saw and met Sophie Blackall at the Children’s Literature Conference. She’s quite impressive, and I’m working my way through all of her titles. Hence, Negative Cat.
Negative Cat is simpler than some of Blackall’s other works: child wants cat, child pesters adults for cat, child gets cat, cat is disappointing (both in itself and compared to other cats), then, finally, child stumbles across something that makes the cat pleasing and loving. This has a nice structure to it, because the parents made the kid promise to read every day as one of conditions of getting a cat. They don’t like to read, but it turns out, the cat (Max) likes to sit with the kid while they’re reading. This not only leads to personal happiness (for the kid and in the family), Max and the kid go to the animal shelter and read to the other cats. This makes the other cats happy–and other kids ask for cats.
There are some nice levels here: the child is irritating at first, but it works out, the child is a bit of a follower (comparing Max to other cats), but becomes a leader, and son.
The illustrations use spacing and shapes to make the full page come alive.
