Fraser Lewry, Kittenwar: May the Cutest Kitten Win! (Chronicle Books, 2007)
I have ranted and raved here a number of times recently about the blog-to-book craze and how the books that come out of it are mediocre at best. But, as with all rules, there are a handful of exceptions; you just have to root them out. Kittenwar: May the Cutest Kitten Win! breaks some established blog-to-book rules, and because of that, what we get is a product that, if not geared for repetition, is at least more interesting than the bulk of the lot.
How'd they do it? Simple: it's not just blog content, in the way that so many of these books are. They take the blog content and play with it a little, adding a silly game, some psychological profiling (that's clearly of the “pulled out of our posteriors” bent, in case anyone was wondering), and some random kitten-related facts to compensate for the major blog-to-book problems (lack of interaction and possible differences in taste between blog owner/book editor/reader). It may not be something you want for your permanent collection (and besides, there's a website for that), but you should definitely head down to your local library and spend a couple of hours basking in the cuteness of baby animals. ****