Ella Moonheart, Misty the Scared Kitten (Kitty’s Magic #1), Bloomsbury/Allen & Unwin, Oct 2016, 128pp., $9.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781408870921
Ella Moonheart, Shadow the Lonely Cat (Kitty’s Magic #2), Bloomsbury/Allen & Unwin, Oct 2016, 112pp., $9.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781408870945
Misty the Scared Kitten is the first in Ella Moonheart’s series about Kitty, a girl of Japanese heritage, who can turn into a cat. From the delightfully bright and cheerful cover, readers will see that Kitty is a caring, strong-willed character who wants to do what’s right. She’s invited to her friend Jenny’s one night for a sleepover, to celebrate her new kitten Misty, when she discovers she can magically turn into a cat — much to her own, and Misty’s, astonishment. Venturing out into the night, Misty becomes her guide in this new cat world. Later, her Gran divulges that all the women in her family have this power, much to her delight.
Soon enough it becomes clear that Misty is being bullied in her very own backyard thanks to two haughty cats from the house next door. As Misty grows afraid to venture outside, Kitty finds out her grandmother is a Cat Guardian herself and wants to start grooming her to become her replacement. Kitty takes her responsibilities seriously and soon finds herself, as a Cat Guardian, cheering Misty on to stand up to the bullies, but working on a plan as her human self to ensure her friend’s safety.
Kitty is a creative character, helping Misty find a solution to the bullies, but never taking her agency away – encouraging and supporting Misty in standing up to the bullies. It’s a thoughtful exploration of what it means to a bullying victim to be able to have the support they need to stand up to a bully.
The next book in this series is Shadow the Lonely Cat. It’s been a few weeks since Kitty discovered her Cat Guardian responsibilities and she’s working with her Gran to get to know and understand the other cats in the neighbourhood so as to be a better guardian. Soon enough she finds out that Shadow, a cat who was once friendly and fun to hang out with, hasn’t been around in awhile and when she tries to uncover why, her human and cat worlds kind of crossover.
She discovers that Shadow is afraid – not for himself, but for his human, Mrs Thornton. She’s a kindly old lady who had a recent fall making Shadow afraid to leave her on her own. Shadow proves to be brave as well as caring, when he helps Kitty escape an Alsatian, showing her how different everyone’s impressions are of his reality. It’s another cute way of reminding readers to think for themselves and not to rely on rumour – something which ties in nicely with her experiences as a human with her friend Jenny (and Misty’s owner), who reveals how afraid she is of Mrs Thornton’s house because it looks so spooky.
Later, once learning the truth about Mrs Thornton, Jenny expresses her regret at believing the spooky rumours about her. It’s a lesson in social experience that is saved from being too heavy-handed but the magic aspect of the story.
The one thing that bothers me about these books though is the illustrations. Kitty is described as being of Japanese descent. Her gran is Japanese as well, but it’s never made clear if her parents are both Japanese. Given they work in a store that sells Japanese items and the story mentions them looking for Japanese items to sell in the store, I took it as an indication that Kitty (Koemi is her real name) is a Japanese girl. But the illustrations don’t show that for me – not with her and not with her gran.
The text itself is light on mentioning her Japanese heritage – it’s mentioned once or twice in each book in the beginning or in relation to her parents going off somewhere, but it’s not actually a huge part of the narrative. The books do contain illustrations though, so I expected the illustrations to show her as a Japanese character, to remind readers of her heritage even as she leads a pretty normal life (barring the magic) that any kid of any heritage could – isn’t that what readers want to see?
I think in a book like this, we need to see characters that are of diverse heritage, without leaving it up to readers to question and figure it out. But then the question becomes – would an obviously Japanese character stray into stereotypes? Was the author/illustrator/publisher afraid of stereotypes or alienating some readers? Would a Japanese reader think the same way though? I’m still mulling this over and would love you to share your thoughts in the comments section…
Reviewed by Verushka Byrow
