Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Waking Up? - Softcover

Michael Sampson lives with his family in Commerce, Texas. His picture books include Caddie the Golf Dog and Trick or Treat. When he’s not busy writing, he’s visiting schools and speaking at conferences. He and Bill Martin Jr revised the first edition of Chicken Chuck, originally published in 1946 and illustrated by Bill’s brother, Bernard Martin.

Laura J. Bryant studied drawing, painting, and print making at the Maryland Institute of Art, and is the illustrator of Where Fish Go in Winter: And Other Great Mysteries. She lives in the Shenandoah Mountains of West Virginia.

"A dawdling kitten and her patient mother take part in a daily ritual that will be familiar to parents and children: "Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, are you waking up?/Not yet Mother, I'm a sleepy buttercup." The two continue their back-and-forth exchange as Kitty Cat dilly-dallies and Mother urges her through each step of the morning routine and gets her off to school. Martin uses the repetitive formula that worked so well in Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do you See? (1983) and, more recently, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (2007, both Holt), but this time the cumulative questions actually advance a narrative. Kitty Cat is the star of her own show, romping across the pages, knowing that she will eventually get to where she needs to be. There is never a sense of urgency on Mother's part, either, which makes the final line "Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, now we have to go!/Okay, Mother, I'm sorry I'm so slow" seem like an unexpected chastisement. The accompanying picture of mother and daughter sharing a warm hug helps to defuse the negativity. Bryant's illustrations, rendered in watercolor and colored pencil, are playful, light, and absolutely adorable. This book is perfect for sharing one-on-one, preferably while snuggling."
- School Library Journal, July 2008

"In many households, getting children out of bed, dressed, fed, and ready for school is an action-packed daily drama, filled with unexpected glitches and strange twists of direction. This delightfully comic rhyming book sets the struggle in a cat household, with one adorably recalcitrant kitten reenacting actions that engender the parental response, how can this be taking so long? For every hurry-up directive the mother cat gives, the kitten has one refrain: "Just a second Mother." Readers see the kitten snuggling on the pillow, standing on its head in bed, tearing apart the bedroom in search of socks, discovering and chasing a mouse. All is mayhem and panic. A tiny mouse serves as an interested observer in each watercolor, until he becomes prey, and then a very relieved escapee, as the kitten is finally swept off to school. Children should enjoy this recasting of their own getting-ready sagas. --Booklist, July 2008