Cats' Night Out

CATastrophically bad?  No, but Caroline Stutson's fancy feast is definitely not the cat's meow either... 

THREE PROS

*Kind of cool for your kids to be exposed to a bunch of examples of dance steps and classy fashion choices  

*Illustrator Klassen's content had its issues, but overall he did a nice job depicting the world of big city alley cat nightlife
*I'm all for bonus content (in this case there is a number hunt on each page) -- but when I only find out about it after reading the inside jacket, it's an indicator that things weren't exactly on point

THREE CONS 

*I get that it's set at night, but the whole thing is too dark (with the worst offender being the brutal choice of black text over charcoal gray backgrounds) 
*Seriously, to have the six humans in the book look identical seems lazy to me 

*Come to think of it, the number hunt kind of blew since half of the digits were 'hidden' in the same spot right above the windows

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Another award winner (complete with a golden seal on the cover) that fails to justify its selection.  In this case the Governor General's Literary Awards dropped the ball of yarn big time.  To me, this book is the definition of going through the motions. Pointless and boring with some fairly weak redeeming values.  In other words, CNO feels like just another nondescript tabby in the kidlit litter.  Put it up for adoption.    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy