Bad Kitty Vs. Uncle Murray: The Uproar at the Front Door

Bad Kitty Chapter Book #3

by Nick Bruel

Kitty's owners are taking a week off and leaving Kitty and Puppy at home. So who's going to watch them? Good ol' Uncle Murray, star of the Fun Facts feature of previous Kitty books--the guy you thought knew everything about cats. Think again It isn't long before Uncle Murray is driven to near madness by shenanigans of epic proportions.

Genres: Childrens, Humor, Cats, Animals, Fiction, Chapter Books, Graphic Novels

176 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Nick Bruel is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of children's books including Bad Kitty, Bad Kitty Gets a Bath, Bad Kitty Meets the Baby, and Boing!, among others. Nick is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, and during his down time, he collects PEZ dispensers and grows tomatoes in the backyard. He lives in Tarrytown, NY with his wife Carina and their lovely cat Esmerelda.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/nickbruel

Reviews

[Tim The Enchanter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the review of my 7 year old daughter, Sydney.

This Bad Kitty book was not as good as the other Bad Kitty books. I thought this book was really repetitive and sometimes I got bored while reading it.

In this book, the characters are Bad Kitty, Dog, the Baby, the owners and Uncle Murray. The story was about the time when Uncle Murray was the babysitter for Bad Kitty and the Dog. Bad Kitty was bad in this book because she thought Uncle Murray was going to eat her so she spent most of the book running away and hiding from Uncle Murray! Every Time Uncle Murray got close to her, she would jump up and run away.

Even though the story repeated a lot, I still liked to read it because the things that Bad Kitty did were funny. We also got to see Bad Kitty's friends and I really like to read about her friends.

I think this book is good to help you practice your reading. These books make your reading easier because there are funny pictures on every page. The pictures help you figure out words that might be hard for you to read.

DAD'S NOTES:

I like these books for young readers. They easily grasp my daughters attention (she reads them in about an hour or less). While the page count is a bit higher (160 pages or so) there are great illustrations throughout the story. Emerging readers will enjoy the extra help the illustrations provide.

[Greta is Erikasbuddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad Kitty is back!!


With Puppy and Uncle Murray..


Uncle Murray?


Who is Uncle Murray?


Uncle Murray is going to watch Kitty and Puppy while their people are gone for the week.


But where did their people go?


This book is great! Full of zany kitty action that will really get you inside a kitty's head.


It's also full of 'real kitty' facts. Like why cats are afraid of people, vacuum cleaners, and why some kitties don't like to be left alone.


This book is a chapter book and would be great for little ones who want to get into their big siblings "Wimpy Kid" books. These are just their speed.


I had a lot of fun reading this one. And I really enjoyed looking for all of Kitty's hiding spots.


I'm happy she survived Uncle Murray's visit, even though she thought he was a monster. But will she be able to survive what her people brought home?

[Halley Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Kitty is quite an annoying cat, but, she is also just plain goofy. It is not her fault that she is scared of big, loud Uncle Murray, who is pet-sitting her and Puppy while their people are away for a week. Even though he doesn't understand why she hides and screams at him, he still does his best to feed her. But, the line is crossed when she gets outside and a horde of cats chase him while he tries to catch her. Then, he leaves her by herself, which also causes her to be scared. However, he remembers his promises, and comes back. She is nicer to him, but still terrorizes puppy. When her people come back, finally, they give her the big surprise they promised when they left: A Baby. Bad Kitty's life is going to be quite different from now on.

This transitional chapter book will definitely amuse and please children who are scared of chapter books. The chapters are quite short, and most of the page is taken up by hilarious illustrations of Bad Kitty. Bad Kitty is drawn in an exaggerated manner, with spiky fur and big, expressive eyes. It is easy to tell how she if feeling based on body language and facial cues. This hold trues for the other characters in the novel, as well. The dialogue helps to convey sequences, and not emotions, so the pictures really need to be understood in order to get the entire story. This makes this a great novel to employ predictive questioning, and also help children learn how to analyze what a character says and does. The information between chapters about cats also helps the audience to know why Bad Kitty is acting the way she does. I wish there had been a bit more dialogue. This book is highly recommended for readers in grades 3-5.

[Sweet on Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uncle Murray comes to take care of Bad Kitty and Puppy while their owners go away. Let the games begin. First of all, Bad Kitty is a touchy little cat. Bad Kitty needs to be handled with care and Uncle Murray is like a bull in a china shop. After some hilarious non-starters, Uncle Murray decides that goofy cat isn't worth it and he leaves. However, responsibility gets the better of him and lucky for us readers, Uncle Murray returns to take care of the animals. An uneasy alliance is formed. When the pets' owners return, Uncle Murray is somewhat catatonic and is mumbling about what nice pets fish make. The best part of the book is the last page when Bad Kitty is introduced to the reason his owners have been gone for a week: the new baby. This reader eagerly awaits the next book that will no doubt pit baby against Kitty.

Bruel has created a funny little character in Bad Kitty. Kitty is part drama queen and part neurotic prone to fits of delusions that are sidesplittingly funny. Kids and adults will enjoy reading this book together. Bruel also offers the reader a wealth of information in the form of "Fun Facts". For example, one fun fact section is entitled, "Why are Cats Afraid of Vacuum Cleaners?" In this well illustrated book, there is also a graphic component with comics interspersed throughout. I see reluctant readers of all types eating these books up.

[welearnfromfailurenotsuccess · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a family that owns a kitty and the kitty is bad so they call him bad kitty. The family had to go somewhere and they left the bad kitty with his uncle and his uncle's name was Murray.Bad kitty hates uncle Murray and they went on a wrestling match with each other.The match went on and on with each other and they where just wrestling and then they stooped after that they where back to being friends.The family of bad kitty came back and the family told uncle Murray how did it go and he said good.The family said OK then next time we need a babysitter we will call you to be a babysitter for bad kitty.I really loved this book and i would like to read the rest of the series.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first chapter book that I’ve ever read to my 5-year old son, and he loved it! He is beginning to read, so he liked being able to identify some words, to go along with the pictures. Now...what to read with him next?

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, boy. How am I going to rate Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray? My niece *adores* the Bad Kitty books, and my nephew likes Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray in particular. Both kids laugh their heads off at Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray. In addition, my niece likes to read Bad Kitty books aloud, and I have noticed an improvement in her expression and fluency, so it's really hard for me to say what I'm going to say next about Bad Kitty.

I cannot stand these books! I love that the kids love them (hence the four stars), but these books drive me to the brink of insanity! I believe I told my sister, "Bad Kitty makes me suicidal!" I just don't like the almost comic book nature of them, I don't like the choppiness of the stories, and I don't like the repetitiveness of them. When my niece pulls one out and asks me if she can read it to me, inside I scream and run from the room! On the outside, though, I choose to encourage her, and say, "Sure!!" But a part of me dies with the turn of each and every page. There just *have* to be funny books out there that are better written than these Bad Kitty books! If there are, I hope my niece finds them *fast*!

[Jennifer Lara]

This book was great. Uncle Murray was babysitting kitty and puppy for a week. But kitty doesn't like Uncle Murray and start to give him a hard time. Puppy, on the other hand, does like Uncle Murray and becomes Uncle Murray's favorite. Uncle Murray turned on the vacuum cleaner and kitty starts to go crazy because of the noise and ran out the door. She kept making so much noise that all of her cat friends heard and came to help. When Uncle Murray finally cornered Kitty, She starts to look bigger. This is a simple warning for everyone. DO NOT go near a cat when it looks bigger! When Uncle Murray grabbed kitty(Even though he wondered why Kitty looks bigger) and she turned into a tornado of claws and scratches. Uncle Murray then got chased by cats and got kitty in the house. Then when someone knocked on the door, he went to see who is it and the swarm of cats went inside. Then he shouted"ALL CATS LEAVE RIGHT NOW!" Then He left with puppy and left kitty alone. Then he realized that he promised to take care of both of them then he came back. I recommend this book to people who like bad kitty.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Kitty may be bad, but I love him anyway. A cat's perspective on what goes on when his owners go away and the pet sitter comes to play - complete with snarky, cat-like commentary! I liked how Bruel also incorporated sections explaining feline behavior, which added a nice component to help kids understand their pets. Plus, the drawings of Uncle Murray looking more and more frazzled made me laugh out loud!

[Seung Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of this series. The dialogue is funny because some words come out of nowhere to make this hilarious.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another excellent Bad Kitty book! I loved both the story and the great illustrations!

[Jonathan Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story because I like something will settle at the end of the story. And I like the story that is like fighting or something that is against something. And I like the words that the author used "HOLY SALAMI" because I didn't hear something called Holy Salami before. And I like how the illustrator draws the characters like a cartoon.
Something that I don't like in this book is that the trouble is almost every time is like the same and I got bored sometimes. But I like the part that the bad kitty hide and uncle murry didn't notice the cat and uncle murry make the cat angry.

[Veronica Precourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

it is good

[Ella Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really funny and I was able to read it quickly! I will definitely be reading more Bad Cat books!

[Luke Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

#1 Uncle Murray defender

[ella]

still hits

[Maria Antonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of a series that gets its beginning from an ABC picture book called Bad Kitty. In that book, it introduces a character called Uncle Murray in a tiny little cameo. He’s so memorable that he ends up one of the main characters in this book! There’s just something very fun about Uncle Murray.

For me, one of the best parts of the book was Uncle Murray’s “Fun Facts”. I actually really enjoyed these facts about why cats get scared and how they react to situations that startle them. It’s a nice little addition to all the silliness and slapstick humour.

I absolutely LOVE how this book leads us directly to the next book in the series. [4 Stars]

[Sherlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray
My books name is Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray The Uproar At The Front Door the author of this book is Nick Bruel, and this book has 157 pages.

In this book, Bad Kitty was having a dream about kitty paradise until a suitcase was dropped on her head and to find out that her owners were going on a trip that one week long but she couldn’t come and neither could puppy so the owners called Uncle Murray to come and babysit them for a week until they get back from their trip and Kitty wasn’t so happy about it until the owner said they would bring her a big surprise when they got back. Then, when Uncle Murray knocked on the door puppy was excited but kitty went off and when she did see him it wasn’t in a good way she was really scared of him so she went and hid. After that Uncle Murray was just ready to sit down watch some TV and eat but he sat on Kitty because she was hiding and Uncle Murray did not see her there and when he did sit on her she ran and made a big mess on the floor and she kept hiding and Uncle Murray kept on having to be careful because she kept on hiding places that Uncle Murray didn’t see her and she made more messes until she just ran away.

After that, Kitty was writing in her diaries and in the first two minutes, she is talking about how she has no food or water and she knows that the monster is still out there and it has big feet and how the dog smells bad. In six minutes, she is saying that it's been two days since she has no food, how she is so hungry, she can still hear the monster and that puppy really smells bad. In ten minutes, Kitty is talking about that it has been five days now and how dog still smells bad, how he is ugly too and he drools a lot and if she could drink his drool but says she would rather have monster eat her. After fifteen minutes she says it's been over a week and she can hear monster, dog still smelly and ugly and how maybe the monster will eat dog instead of her and leave her alone and how dog is stupid. In sixteen, eighteen, and twenty minutes in her diary it was just talking about how she thought puppy had died because she didn't see him and then she was imagining that puppy’s leg was a turkey leg and she bit him and then after that Uncle Murray gave then some food and Kitty was really hungry she tore Uncle Murray’s pants and shoes. Then, Uncle Murray was talking about a dog that he had when he was small and how he found him on the streets and his mom wouldn’t let him keep it so he took it to the shelter and visited him every day after school but then one day the dog was not there and he cried so much and then one day he saw a dog that looks exactly like the dog he found and he was mad happy but he knew that the dog was happy so he was happy and the dogs name was Sam. Uncle Murray was cleaning the house and then when he was vacuuming Kitty got scared and ran everywhere and got out of the house and he ran after her and every cat followed along and when he cornered her she turned into a tornado and him went to the house but meanwhile that happened strange kitty and his rodent heard this and got ready to go after them. When he got Kitty in the house all the cats came and Uncle Murray couldn't take it anymore and made all the cats leave but Kitty. Uncle Murray told her he was going to leave and he was going to take puppy with him. When he left Kitty started to meow and got scared. Then, Uncle Murray came and said he wasn’t going to break his promise and he was going to take care of them even though he knew it was going to be hard and Kitty didn’t seem so scared anymore. When the owner got back the house was a wreck and Uncle Murray didn’t look so good and he was just talking about fish and how peaceful they are. Last, the owner reminded Kitty that they got her a really big surprise and it was a baby!

In my opinion, I say this book was really good. I think this because of how funny it was, it had some good information about cats, and I just say other people would enjoy this book as much as I did. What I liked about this book was that Kitty is always doing unexpected things and making it so hilarious like when she bits puppy’s leg because she thought it was a turkey leg. I really liked all the characters but my favorites were Kitty and Uncle Murray and Puppy. What I liked about the authors writing was that he put some fun facts about cats that I didn’t even know and how he can make the stories so funny. That is what I think about this book.

In my opinion, I think this was a really good book and I would recommend it for other people to read. The first reason I would recommend this book for other people to read it is that it does have some good information and most of it I didn’t even know about so it was also interesting. Another reason I would recommend this book is that I really loved this book especially the part when Kitty writes in her diary and for every little time that passed by she was saying it has been days and when she bit puppy because of how hungry she was. The last reason I would recommend this book is that it is hilarious so many parts of this book are just plain playing around and just jokes and I loved it so much. That is why I would recommend this book for other people to read it.

That is what I thought about this book if I would recommend other people reading it, and a summary of it!

[Kyleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Kyleigh.

Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray is a funny and great book it's about a cat named Kitty that her owners leave Kitty and Puppy anlone for a week with Uncle Murray.

Character Trait- Happy because Kitty's owners had a surprise for her.

I think the most important event is when Uncle Murray told Puppy about his story.

I recommend this book for anyone who likes funny books.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bad kitty's owner is going on a trip. Yes without kitty. He said he would bring back a special surprise. Uncle Murray's taking care of her for a week. Kitty's nickname from Uncle Murray is goofy cat. And she is a goofy cat. Kitty will try to battle Uncle Murray until he leaves. But kitty was already starving before Uncle Murray even left.
To Be Continued.

[Holly Letson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think we have all established the idea that Uncle Murray is a dog lover. That is very obvious in this installment as well. But, there's no love lost for Kitty, either. Neither likes one another until after being separated a little bit.

[Madeleine Gamboa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I read a bad kitty book but I enjoined it and it is really cool and liked it so much.I liked it because it was funny and the cat is so scary at loud noises.

[AHI · Rating 5 out of 5]

read 2x

[The Obsidian Nook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kitty and puppy owners are going on hoilday which means that uncle Murray will be looking after kitty and puppy.
Kitty doesn't like uncle Murray looking after her so she makes his day difficult by hiding and knocking things over. Kitty writes a very dramatic diary of how there's no food and that puppy stinks.
Murray tells his story of how he found A dog called Sam, Murray talks about how much he loved Sam and wanted to take care of Sam but Due to Murrays babysitter being allergic to dogs Murray had To give up Sam to A dog shelter. Murray got to see Sam everyday after school by going to the shelter one day Murray goes to vist Sam to find that Sam had been adopted by A lovely family who promised to take care of Sam. Murray gose for A walk A year later where he bumps into Sam and the little girl Sam is playing with. Murray is happy to see somebody else love Sam as much as he did.
After A week of Murray looking after kitty and puppy the owners return to surprise kitty it's A baby sister and Kitty is not pleased.

A very fun and heartwarming story. A very quick read but it's cats what's not to love.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray By Nick Bruel
Bad Kitty is at it again. When the family leaves, Uncle Murray comes to stay to watch the pets. After a couple of hours of many screeches, a wild cat chase, and some strange visitors, Uncle Murray has thrown in the towel. However, both bad kitty and Uncle Murray have a change of heart and agree to get along since they are forced to stay together for the rest of the week. I have never read a Bad Kitty book but I enjoyed this hilarious tale. With great illustrations that occasionally add in a comic book theme, this book deserves four stars. I love every cartoon detail and every facial expression. I would suggest this book to any second or third grader looking for a good and easy read.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I kind of know what my cats are thinking when I leave them in someone else’s care…although my house sitter is a peach. Bad Kitty is not happy that her owner’s have left her with Uncle Murray- who doesn’t exactly understand cats, but bless him, he’s trying! When Bad kitty gets out, the neighborhood cats come together to get her home, but Uncle Murray has had enough. He packs up Good Doggie and leaves.


And did you know that kitties can have separation anxiety when left alone?

I learned this and lots more. Like cats can hear 3x better than humans and they have 60 vertebrae. Also, the fear of cats is “ailurophobia” (which I don’t have) and the fear of getting scratched is “amychophobia” (which I must not have either, though I can’t say It’s a favorite pastime!)

[Brett Curtiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

super cool book

This book is
About a family going on a vacation and some guy name uncle Murray babysitting the cat and dog problem: the cat is scared of uncle Murray the book is fine but one downside the downside is it was a really short book and don’t blame me for reading a kids book it’s just I’m a book reviewer ok it’s fun to right reviews ok back to the book but he cover doesn’t really happen in the book the babysitter is acutally a pretty good one but kitty does no care she hates or she is scared of everybody

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Kitty's people are going on vacation for a week, so Uncle Murray has agreed to take care of Puppy and Kitty. Unfortunately for Uncle Murray, Kitty is at her psycho-ist so the week promises to be... eventful!

Lots of funny bits, with some good info on making friends with cats and how cats can react to environment changes.

No content issues, though there are scratches, bumps and bruises.

[Tiger · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot more to read in this volume as Uncle Murray talks a lot lol In this volume, it felt like a lot happened but it also felt like nothing happened at all!

I really loved the Strange Kitty cameo, he's easily my favorite character and I hope he appears more in the future.

Not my favorite one so far, maybe because it was kinda focused on uncle Murray, but I liked it and didn't expect the ending.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the adults of the house leave for a few days, some one needs to come and take care of Puppy and Kitty. Here comes Uncle Murray! Poor Uncle Murray, he and Kitty do not hit it off at first. Will they ever become friends? It get so bad that Uncle Murray just leaves. Who will care for Puppy and Kitty? Spoiler, yes he does. He realizes that he said he promised he would care for these two pets and he is going to keep it.