Kitten Construction Company: Meet the House Kittens

By John Patrick Green

All Marmalade wants to do is build things.

She is, after all, a trained architect.

She’s also a distractingly adorable kitten.

Fed up with not being taken seriously because she's so cute, Marmalade bands together with a handful of other aspiring builders—all of them kittens. But in a world where humans call the shots, can the Kitten Construction Company prove their worth . . . without giving up the very things that make them kittens?

(Don't worry, dear reader, the answer is definitely "yes"!)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Sep 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781250221605

John Patrick Green

John Patrick Green lives and works in New York City where he makes books and comics about animals with human jobs, notably the smash-hit graphic novel series InvestiGators. He's worked as a comics consultant for Disney, Nickelodeon and Dreamworks. With over a million copies of InvestiGators - starring Mango and Brash the sewer-dwelling crime busters - in the wild, he also creates artwork for video games. He lives in a flat in Brooklyn that doesn't allow any pets, or animals, so he has to make do with the ones living in his imagination.

Book preview

Reviews for Kitten Construction Company

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Marmalade knows that she is an excellent architect with good plans, but the human city planner refuses to take her seriously because she's a kitten. Upset with the decision, she and another kitten (who is dismissed easily by humans for the same reason) decide to start an all-kitten construction company to show the humans just how wrong they are.I know I shouldn't say this because the kittens get irked by it, but this book is too adorable. The kittens are so precious looking, the humor is perfect (and works on several levels with lines that I think only adults might truly get), and the moral of the story is nice to boot. It's easy to see the plight of the kittens as a metaphor for gender and/or racial inequality, but here it's simplified for young readers as something that can be overcome to some degree by doing the work. Among the humans, there is some diversity as seen primarily in the illustrations, including a seemingly Latinx woman as the mayor of the town. The illustrations are great all around, complementing the story perfectly with just a smidge of extra details.This is a short, quick read that young kids are sure to enjoy.

[carlathelibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If your child likes kittens, then this book is sure to be a hit. The House Kittens are not your everyday house cat, they are smart and capable. Everyone thinks they are just cute kittens and even when they prove themselves as wonderful builders, only one person really believes they built the house. A fun book to show that you can do whatever you put your mind to and not let others convince you not to try. This is written in graphic novel/comic book format and that will appeal to young readers. I am looking forward to more in this series. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.

[paula2childrenslib · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

From the same author illustrator of hippopotamister comes another animal focused graphic novel. An important building project is about to start and the best candidates for the job are cats. Marmalade is the architect, Sampson is an electrical engineer, bubbles dreams of being a plumber but they’re only seen as cute and adorable, nobody takes them serious. With the help of Professor von Wigglebottom, the carpenter, they find an abandoned job site and get started. The city planner realizes the cats are on the right track but no one believes him no even when the mayor’s mansion the kittens build is unveiled. Colorful watercolor illustrations accompany this fantastical story. There is one spread that shows photographs on a phone of real cats in construction like situations. A cute story that might work for an audience that likes cats and construction. Written 2nd - 4th gradeAD

[pardamustang · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kitten Construction Company by John Patrick Green is a light-hearted, somewhat silly book about an architect no one will take seriously. Why? Because Marmalade is an adorable kitten. But Marmalade is determined to prove to doubters that kittens can be architects too. Together with Sampson, Bubbles, and the Professor (more kittens), they start the House Kitten Construction Company. The kittens get together to build Marmalade's plans for the new mayoral manor. When the real manor is revealed, it is found to be very flawed. Thankfully, House Kittens Construction has the day well in hand and their project is used after all. No one believes it was built by a cat crew though. This was an okay read. The artwork is absolutely adorable. Of course, it was being adorable that got the kittens ignored all through the book. They were considered cute, and that took everything away from the knowledge they possessed. I know this was a kid’s book, but all I could think of every time someone was condescending to the kittens, was the parallels between how males can condescending to females in the workplace, most especially if the job in question is one still primarily dominated by men. No matter what the women's qualifications, they couldn't possibly have better ideas than the men. Or the kittens couldn't possibly have better ideas than humans. This is just my opinion, of course. This could be a silly bedtime read for young children. ***Many thanks to Netgalley and First Second Books for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.