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The First Cat in Space #1
The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza: A Hilarious Graphic Novel for Kids Ages 8-12
"Ridiculously fun and brilliantly illustrated.” —Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants
As seen on The TODAY Show! New York Times bestselling Mac Barnett and Caldecott Honor award-winning illustrator Shawn Harris turn their massively popular The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza live cartoon into an action-packed and hysterical graphic novel series—perfect for fans of Dav Pilkey, Raina Telgemeier, and Jeff Kinney. A Kids' Indie Next List Pick, an Indie Bestseller, and a Junior Library Guild Selection!
Something terrible is happening in the skies! Rats are eating the MOON!
There’s only ONE hero for the job, a bold and fearsome beast bioengineered in a secret lab to be the moon’s savior and Earth’s last hope! And that hero is . . . a cat. A cat who will be blasted into space!
Accompanied by the imperious Moon Queen and LOZ 4000, a toenail clipping robot, the First Cat in Space journeys across a fantastic lunar landscape in a quest to save the world. Will these unlikely heroes save the moon in time? Can a toenail-clipping robot find its purpose in the vast universe? And will the First Cat in Space ever eat some pizza?
As seen on The TODAY Show! New York Times bestselling Mac Barnett and Caldecott Honor award-winning illustrator Shawn Harris turn their massively popular The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza live cartoon into an action-packed and hysterical graphic novel series—perfect for fans of Dav Pilkey, Raina Telgemeier, and Jeff Kinney. A Kids' Indie Next List Pick, an Indie Bestseller, and a Junior Library Guild Selection!
Something terrible is happening in the skies! Rats are eating the MOON!
There’s only ONE hero for the job, a bold and fearsome beast bioengineered in a secret lab to be the moon’s savior and Earth’s last hope! And that hero is . . . a cat. A cat who will be blasted into space!
Accompanied by the imperious Moon Queen and LOZ 4000, a toenail clipping robot, the First Cat in Space journeys across a fantastic lunar landscape in a quest to save the world. Will these unlikely heroes save the moon in time? Can a toenail-clipping robot find its purpose in the vast universe? And will the First Cat in Space ever eat some pizza?
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 10, 2020
664 people are currently reading
8474 people want to read
About the author
Mac Barnett
93 books1,349 followersBorn to non-farmers in a California farming community, Mac Barnett now lives near San Francisco. He's on the board of directors of 826LA, a nonprofit writing center for students in Los Angeles, and he founded the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, a convenience store for time travelers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 468 reviews
May 15, 2022
We’ve been waiting for this one and it was SO worth the wait. My five year old read the whole thing by himself after bedtime and fell asleep with it propped on his pillow, but we finished reading it together today. He loves it and even brought it to school for share day. He thinks Loz 4000 is the best character, but I’m partial to underrated faves Dennis and the whale. Truly can’t express how much joy this has brought our family. Club heads 4 lyfe!!!
August 2, 2022
First of all, thanks to netgalley and HarperCollins for a digital ARC of this book, which I shared with my 8 year old twins. They are writing the majority of this review. So, from the mom side of our shared reading, I want you to know that my 8yo twins LOVE Mac Barnett, and this book was no exception. They cackled together over it, recited it eagerly back to me, and talked about it for days afterwards.
And here's what they said when I asked them for their review of it:
I want to recommended to People who like adventure stories, cats, and pizza. It has a lot of excitement and hilarity. It’s about a cat, a stowaway robot who clips toenails, and the moon Queen going on a quest to save the moon from evil rats who are eating it. The art style is good, really good. It looks like a kid who is really good at drawing drew it, with great cartoony style.
The moral of the story is that someone will always take your place. What? It's true. it's a fact.
And here's what they said when I asked them for their review of it:
I want to recommended to People who like adventure stories, cats, and pizza. It has a lot of excitement and hilarity. It’s about a cat, a stowaway robot who clips toenails, and the moon Queen going on a quest to save the moon from evil rats who are eating it. The art style is good, really good. It looks like a kid who is really good at drawing drew it, with great cartoony style.
The moral of the story is that someone will always take your place. What? It's true. it's a fact.
June 4, 2022
Oh my god, this is absolutely bonkers hilarious. Tip to tail, so funny!!!!! I loved it!
August 17, 2022
Oh my Grammy’s meatloaf. What a hoot!
September 15, 2022
Very cute, and it made me laugh! 😹
September 27, 2022
Silly. Just silly.
May 15, 2022
it was purrrfect.
April 5, 2024
My narrator quit, so i did too.
August 11, 2024
That was absolutely delightful
June 30, 2023
We loved this one! So silly and interesting and clever and will definitely be adding this to my list of middle-grade gives. There’s a soundtrack on Spotify for it too, which is so fun. I’m loving this trend if multimedia books. Already preordered the second book—can’t wait to laugh along!
June 18, 2025
Meow. ❤️
March 12, 2025
I like cats. I like space. I like pizza. This was funny and well-illustrated but it was a little to silly for my taste. Still really enjoyed it though.
Read
October 15, 2025Read in preparation for an upcoming author visit!!! I laughed a lot.
May 5, 2022
What do you get when you take the best-selling author Mac Barnett, the Caldecott Honor award-winning illustrator Shawn Harris, and let them work on a project together while everyone is sheltering in place during 2020? A live-action cartoon featuring the first cat in space, of course! And after the episodes have received thousands of views - the mandate of the people is that the story must be made into a graphic novel of epic adventure! At long last that project is coming to store shelves and online retailers so that we can all enjoy it even when the Internet is down.
After astronomers discover that rats are actually eating the moon, a top secret mission launches the first cat in space to solve the problem. Accompanied by a toenail-clipping robot and the queen of the moon, our intrepid hero must face rats from another galaxy and all the dangers inside their secret base on the dark side of the moon. The hearty adventurers travel through the Land of Frost and the Peninsula of Thunder, meet the man in the moon and a three-headed rat king, and make allies and enemies along the way. But with only three days to save the moon, will they succeed?
Fans of Dog Man, The Flying Beaver Brothers, and similar humorous graphic novels for middle grade readers will have a new favorite book to read and talk over with friends. The commander at Earth's Hexagon (military headquarters) comes up with silly phrases such as, "Oh my grammy's meat loaf" or "Oh my wrinkly pinkie toe" and his assistant Dr.Milksop always says, "My thoughts exactly, sir." His outbursts remind me of Stone Rabbit exclaiming, "Crud monkeys!"
Once readers reach the end of the book, they may enjoy having a watch party of the live cartoon episodes to see where the story began. And there are hints that a second book may happen. "Oh my mama llama."
After astronomers discover that rats are actually eating the moon, a top secret mission launches the first cat in space to solve the problem. Accompanied by a toenail-clipping robot and the queen of the moon, our intrepid hero must face rats from another galaxy and all the dangers inside their secret base on the dark side of the moon. The hearty adventurers travel through the Land of Frost and the Peninsula of Thunder, meet the man in the moon and a three-headed rat king, and make allies and enemies along the way. But with only three days to save the moon, will they succeed?
Fans of Dog Man, The Flying Beaver Brothers, and similar humorous graphic novels for middle grade readers will have a new favorite book to read and talk over with friends. The commander at Earth's Hexagon (military headquarters) comes up with silly phrases such as, "Oh my grammy's meat loaf" or "Oh my wrinkly pinkie toe" and his assistant Dr.Milksop always says, "My thoughts exactly, sir." His outbursts remind me of Stone Rabbit exclaiming, "Crud monkeys!"
Once readers reach the end of the book, they may enjoy having a watch party of the live cartoon episodes to see where the story began. And there are hints that a second book may happen. "Oh my mama llama."
January 13, 2023
This is such a funny graphic novel for the 3rd to 6th grade set. So clever. I hope it takes off as a series. I found out about it from a 5th grade teacher who just raved about it. It’s just silly that’s about all I can say
August 23, 2023
I wou dat ik op 100000000 kan zetten
February 27, 2024
Well that was fun!
August 4, 2024
This was such a cute and fun read. I loved the art style and the different color schemes depending on where we were in the story. I’m so glad I picked this up and I’ll definitely be reading the next one.
May 9, 2022
4.5 stars
December 5, 2022
Hilarious!
May 8, 2024
I liked it but it wasn’t my favorite book I’ve read. But I loved it 📖👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵
October 28, 2024
Read aloud with my kids in preparation for a live event with Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris. This was a lot of fun and we are very excited to see one of our favorite authors in person soon!!
July 28, 2025
Mijn zoon vond dit boek heel grappig.
Ik iets minder
Mnauw :-)))
Ik iets minder
Mnauw :-)))
May 9, 2024
Looking for something to read after Dav Pilkey's's Captain Underpants and Dog Man series? This book about a cat, a moon queen and a stowaway robot may be it
July 3, 2024
It’s okay I love it so much
October 5, 2024
One of Teri’s Battle of the Books reads. Very cute and clever.
July 13, 2024
literally laugh out loud funny!!! so good. 10/10
December 5, 2023
Oh My Giddy Aunt! This was adorable. The humor and wacky antics of the team made me giggle. Young readers will love it. The humor and ridiculousness of the plot reminded me of Dog Man, so fans of that will like it.
March 14, 2025
Both of my children love being read to, but this book has got to be our household's most-requested book. It's middle grade-level, so they can't read it themselves yet, but this could definitely be a good that helps get/keep kids excited about reading. It is about a cat sent to the moon to stop an army of rats from another galaxy from eating the moon. The cat is joined on its journey by a robot and the queen of the moon.
It's full of fun encounters with everything from giants and whales to baby pirates and a sphinx; and it is genuinely funny (even for adults). I especially liked how the title sets up a running joke throughout the whole book, and when the ship's computer breaks the fourth wall. My daughter said her favorite parts were the general's interjections to Dr. Milksop.
There are also a few parts with songs, and there is a website you can go to to hear them sung (by the authors!). While this could be really cool, it ended up just interrupting the flow, and for not much payoff. It's not a QR code or anything, so you'll have to type in the url manually, and then it prompts you to open the playlist in Apple Music or Spotify. I don't use either of those, so I then had to search on Youtube. When we finally got to hear the first song ("Giant Teardrops") it was very underwhelming. On top of that, they apparently recorded more than just the songs, because that first song is track 7! A soundtrack for the book is cool, but not telling the reader to look it up until they're seven songs is lacking some obvious forethought. Maybe the sea shanty and later songs are better, but I didn't bother with any after the first (Also, they have a track titled "Whale Song," but don't mention it in the book, despite including a side note for all the other musical moments...).
I keep forgetting to check out the next in the series from the library, but I really need to do that soon.
It's full of fun encounters with everything from giants and whales to baby pirates and a sphinx; and it is genuinely funny (even for adults). I especially liked how the title sets up a running joke throughout the whole book, and when the ship's computer breaks the fourth wall. My daughter said her favorite parts were the general's interjections to Dr. Milksop.
There are also a few parts with songs, and there is a website you can go to to hear them sung (by the authors!). While this could be really cool, it ended up just interrupting the flow, and for not much payoff. It's not a QR code or anything, so you'll have to type in the url manually, and then it prompts you to open the playlist in Apple Music or Spotify. I don't use either of those, so I then had to search on Youtube. When we finally got to hear the first song ("Giant Teardrops") it was very underwhelming. On top of that, they apparently recorded more than just the songs, because that first song is track 7! A soundtrack for the book is cool, but not telling the reader to look it up until they're seven songs is lacking some obvious forethought. Maybe the sea shanty and later songs are better, but I didn't bother with any after the first (Also, they have a track titled "Whale Song," but don't mention it in the book, despite including a side note for all the other musical moments...).
I keep forgetting to check out the next in the series from the library, but I really need to do that soon.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 468 reviews