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Grehge cyclopedia for Kids

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Sink your claws into some cat facts! Learn the history, behaviors, physical traits, and special characteristics of cat breeds including Siamese, Persian, American Shorthair, Abyssinian, Maine Coon, and many more. This guidebook gives cat lovers and owners an in-depth look at some furry feline friends. Charming photographs, fun facts, and hands-on pet care tips make this is the ultimate cat-alogue!

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2018

6 people are currently reading
29 people want to read

About the author

Joanne Mattern

965 books26 followers
Mattern is the author of many books for children. Her favorite topics include animals, biography, and history. She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York State.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Montzalee Wittmann.
5,233 reviews2,341 followers
August 18, 2017
The Cat Encyclopedia For Kids by Joanne Mattern is book for all ages, not just kids! This has about everything you would ever want to know about cats. The book doesn't go into detail about all 42 distinct cat breeds recognized by Cat Fanciers' Association but it does a fine job of the 12 most popular cat breeds it does cover!
It also gives some great fun tips along the way such as cats can see color! What do you call a group of cats that are gathered together? Which cats were called 'mousers'? Which cats are called 'race car cats'? Which cats like to play fetch? Which cats were called British Ticks? These and other fun tidbits are given.
Each cat breed has its history told and maybe a myth or two debunked. Then the body traits (such as body, color, shape, size), personality, care needed, and of course then the gorgeous images of the feline friends! I can't express enough how wonderful these images are, they make a person want to snuggle all of these charmers up.
If you ever wanted to know about cats, look no further, this is an excellent book to get started. In the end of the book is a brief description of other cat breeds. This may say for kids but adults will love this book as much if not more!
I requested this book from Netgalley and the book publishers and the review is voluntary. Thanks.
Profile Image for Mehsi.
15.1k reviews455 followers
February 17, 2018
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I was really curious about this book, I love cats, though I can’t have a cat myself (stupid allergy). So to counter that emptiness of not ever getting a cat, I love reading about cats, watching documentaries, seeing photographs. :)

This book features 12 cat breeds: Abyssinian, American Shorthair, Birman, Exotic, Maine Coon, Manx, Ocicat, Oriental, Persian, Ragdolls, Siamese, and Sphynx. Each chapter about the breeds tells us about their history, traits (and colours), how to care for them, and if they would be a proper fit (which is very important, you should get a cat that matches you). There are also fun facts.

I love the selection of breeds, 2 of them were new to me (Ragdolls, Oriental), so I was delighted to read up on them and see what they were and how to care for them.

But the other breeds that I already knew also featured some new information, so I never was bored while reading this book.

After those 12 breeds there are 10 pages with several other breeds. Each of them have a very short paragraph with information about the breed. From American Bobtails to Burmese to RagaMuffins. I definitely liked that the author added some more breeds.

Following that are some general tips on caring (like Dental Care, Litter Boxes).

The book is peppered with photographs. And believe me, they are so sweet you don’t need sugar for a month. :P I am glad I was at home when reading this ARC otherwise people may have looked at me in a funny way. I just kept going AWWW, and OMG, and Kyaa!!!.

I also liked the way the book was written. Sometimes non-fiction books get a bit boring because of how it the book is written (long sentences, never ending information), but this author wrote the book in an engaging, fun way.

I would recommend this book to every cat lover out there. It is a fun, informative, cute, engaging book.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Profile Image for Nicole (book.quill).
515 reviews52 followers
August 14, 2017
Good detail, great photographs, though I wish the American shorthair was divided up more, like tabbies vs black cat etc
222 reviews6 followers
November 14, 2017

The Cat Encyclopedia for Kids is a gorgeous, coffee-table quality book jam packed full of readable information. Covering several breeds in depth and several more briefly, this book is truly encyclopedic in scope. The photography is stunning. Each chapter covers the history and traits (both physical and temperament) of a particular breed as well as how to best care for the breed. I especially liked the section under caring that questioned if that breed was right for the reader. That section listed the pros and cons of the various breeds along with considerations when determining if the breed would be an appropriate pet or not.

This book would be appropriate for late elementary through junior high levels probably, but younger kids would enjoy absorbing the pictures while being read to, and older kids would undoubtedly sneak a look now and then when no one was watching.

I gratefully received this book as an eARC from the author, publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. But this is probably going on my daughter’s Christmas list!
Profile Image for Denise.
384 reviews3 followers
June 6, 2018
Thanks to Capstone and NetGalley for allowing a view of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cat fans and animal lovers alike will love the pictures of fabulous felines that are contained in this book. Cat owners can learn about the breed of cat they have chosen and how to take care of them. Great for kids learning to care for and play with cats.
Profile Image for Benni Taylor.
56 reviews12 followers
February 17, 2018
Review also posted on my blog: https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com...

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

I was the kind of kid who would read cat encyclopedias from cover-to-cover multiple times because of my love of cats, so the fact that this book caught my eye is not at all surprising. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to my expectations for a number of reasons, and I didn't finish it with the best impression.

I largely didn't like the book because of ethical reasons. This book described a handful of cat breeds in detail, and then after each one told the reader that the best place to get these particular cats was through breeders and pet stores, and it had an "elitist" air around it when it came to mentioning animal shelters. This book had a large bend towards cat show culture, and while there's nothing wrong with describing breeds of cats based on show requirements, it was rather uncomfortable reading someone tell a targeted 9 to 12-year-old audience that they should be buying cats instead of adopting them because purebred cats are superior and are "less likely to have health problems" when the likelihood of a 9 to 12-year-old actually being able to show their pet cats in a show is extremely low. With the overpopulation of shelters as it is, we shouldn't be teaching kids that shelter animals are inferior to purebred ones when that flat-out isn't true. 

Additionally, the book had an incorrect definition of de-clawing, stating that it "either remove[s] part of the claw or keep[s] a cat from retracting the claw" when the actual act of declawing removes part of the cat's fingers. While the book says that organizations "disapprove" of de-clawing it doesn't actually take a firm stance against it, and the misleading definition of de-clawing can lead people into believing that de-clawing isn't as harmful as it is. Note that this is the text from the ARC and not the final copy and this is something that I hope gets fixed in the final text, but it's a large concern of mine.

The pictures are really beautiful and did make me smile -- the book is FILLED with large, colorful pictures of adorable cats, and they by themselves are delightful.

The pictures in this book are worth looking at for cat lovers, but the writing wasn't very engaging and left me concerned about the motivations behind writing the text. It's not the worst book I've ever read, but I would advise approaching it with caution.

Final rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Profile Image for J.L. Slipak.
Author 14 books30 followers
November 10, 2017
Due out March 1, 2018

Thanks to Netgalley and Capstone for providing me with this ARC to read and provide my honest review.

Description
For Ages: 9-12

Do you have cat-titude? Learn the history, behaviors, physical traits, and special characteristics of cat breeds including Siamese, Persian, American Shorthair, Abyssinian, Maine Coon, and many more. Filled with fun facts and charming photographs, this guidebook gives cat lovers and owners an in-depth look at some furry feline friends. Charming photographs, fun facts, and hands-on pet care tips make this is the ultimate cat-alogue!

Author Bio:

After working as an editor for several major children’s book publishers, Joanne Mattern became the author of numerous nonfiction books for kids. She especially loves writing about animals, sports, and interesting people and places.

Available Editions
EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781623709372
PRICE $14.95 (USD)

MY BOOK REVIEW:
Just the photos alone are adorable. This book shares information on twelve cat breeds. Included is a description of the breed, its origins, care and personality and whether it would be a good choice for you. Accompanying this are fantastic photo. In these photos, you can see the cat’s personality. They are colorful and beautiful.

If you love cats, this book is definitely for you.  If you’ve always been curious about them, pick up this book and read it. Although it’s suppose to be for middle-grade readers, I think adults can benefit from it too. My only complaint, is that there should have been more photos.
Excellently researched, with additional material at the back of the book.

I loved this book, its topic and lay-out!
Profile Image for Alyssa Marie.
242 reviews58 followers
October 15, 2017
This book is basically exactly what the title says. It gives you all kinds of facts on different cats breeds and goes into the history, what breeds came from where. I also really liked how it went into how to properly care for different breeds, as not all cats are the same and should be cared for the same. It goes into what potential health problems they might face, like ones that are common for the breed. It also goes into the cat’s personality and whether that breed might be good for you or not. Which I thought was cool because that way you could know what you’re getting yourself into and if it’d be a good match as, again, not all cats are created equal. I was/am not well versed in cat breeds and this was a cool, cute informative book. For what it was, I gave it a four stars. Because no it’s not one of my favorite books, but for a non fiction book it was good. So I guess if you’re looking for a lil more info on some breeds (and super cute cat pics), I’d pick it up!
Profile Image for Angela Holtz.
491 reviews7 followers
September 1, 2017
42 unique cat breeds! Not all of them are covered in this book. She goes into pretty in depth detail about a few, and then some quick explanations for the remaining.

I loved the photographs and I found the information interesting. She talks about the history of the breed and also how to care for it. Just like with dogs, some cat breeds are suited to certain situations.

Ugliest kitten award goes to that hairless breed. Oh man, who knew a kitten could make you squirm?

My favorite breed? Maine Coon followed by a Russian Blue. How about you?
Profile Image for Fleur Bradley.
Author 6 books219 followers
March 7, 2018
I'm a bit of a cat lady, so I had to read this book.

Great pictures, and perfectly written text that doesn't 'talk down' to kids at all--in fact, I would argue that this book is a great resource for all ages. The breed information is concise and never boring, the pictures make everything easy to understand, and the information on caring for cats that's in the back is very helpful for anyone new to cat ownership.

The perfect book for cat lovers of all ages.

**NetGalley provided e-book for review**
Profile Image for Tracey.
2,244 reviews
June 14, 2018
This is a great book to give to children who are asking for a cat as a pet. It breaks down each breed and weighs the pros and cons of owning one. It talks about the history of where the breed came from, personality traits, how to groom them, and if they get along with other animals.

The pictures are beautiful to look at and the wording is simple enough for younger children to comprehend. I'd recommend reading this alongside your child. As a parent, you can answer any questions they have and it might prompt a trip to the animal shelter.
Profile Image for Marlee.
2,017 reviews
March 28, 2020
My daughter enjoyed learning about different cat breeds. However, there was far too much repetition. The last page of almost every breed explained how to get one, from a breeder, a rescue agency, or possibly through a shelter. There was nearly a whole page explaining this for every different breed even though it was almost the same thing nearly every time. My son and I also didn’t appreciate the explanation of recessive and dominant genes. To claim that recessive genes are weaker and dominant genes are stronger really seems like misinformation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
149 reviews
September 29, 2017
Netgalley ARC Review

Call all of your cat-loving kids! Here is a great book for all of your young readers that want anything feline. If you have the choice between another cat series, or this all-in-one, consider Joanne Mattern's Cat Encyclopedia for Kids. Engaging descriptions and beautiful, color pictures will keep kids turning pages to find out the next fun fact about their favorite felines.
Profile Image for Jamie.
280 reviews14 followers
March 24, 2018
This is an informative book for anyone who likes cats. My favorite was the history of the different cat breeds.
Profile Image for Melinda Keen.
512 reviews4 followers
November 12, 2020
Great book that teaches kids about different cats and the history of breeds.
115 reviews1 follower
May 14, 2022
Great resource and fun facts to learn. Kids enjoyed learning about the different cats available and their features. I am a cat lover and learned a few new things too!
Profile Image for DelAnne Frazee.
2,027 reviews25 followers
Read
August 11, 2017
Title: The Cat Encyclopedia For Kids
Author: Joanne Matten
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 3-1-2018
Pages: 207
Genre: Children's, Nonfiction
Sub-Genre: Middle Grade, Animals, Cats
ISBN: 07816237-9372
ASIN:
Reviewed For NetGalley and Capstone
Reviewer: DelAnne
Rating: 5 Stars


This is a book that states it is for kids, but do not let that stop cat lovers of all ages from enjoying it. It is extremely informative on the breeds discussed. According to the "The Cat Encyclopedia For Kids" there are only 42 breeds recognized by Cat Fanciers Association, but as cat owner knows any breed they have is the best whether is is in the CFA registry or not.


Beautiful photographs are provided to ahh over. Thank you Capstone for publishing a Cat encyclopidia written so even younger readers can understand and use the information to better care for their furry companions. "The Cat Encyclopedia For Kids" is well written and fun to read.


My rating of "The Cat Encyclopedia For Kids" is 5 out of 5 stars.


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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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