Top Cat: A Picture Book for Children (Ages 4-7) About a Cat Who Learns That Welcoming a New Kitten Brings Friendship and Fun

by Lois Ehlert

Top Cat rules the house until an unexpected box arrives with someone new--and cute--inside. At first, Top Cat doesn't want to share his house and favorite things, but soon he learns that two cats can be lots more fun than one.

Genres: Picture Books, Cats, Childrens, Animals, Fiction, Storytime

36 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1998

About the author

Lois Ehlert has created numerous inventive, celebrated, and bestselling picture books, including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Holey Moley, The Scraps Book, Mice, Ten Little Caterpillars, RRRalph, Lots of Spots, Boo to You!, Leaf Man, Waiting for Wings, Planting a Rainbow, Growing Vegetable Soup, and Color Zoo, which received a Caldecott Honor. She lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cat of the house is taken aback when a new cat arrives, but quickly catches the newbie up on all the mischief that cats must do. In rhyme.

Ugh.

My family is a dog household, and I always wonder how cat books like this made it into our personal library.



FOR REFERENCE:

Rated “Indifferent" in our old book database by Rod and Adelia.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who is a sucker for cats? I am a sucker for cats and when I came across this book at a library site I was intrigued by the cover for it looked like the type of illustrations that were used for some of the books that I grew up on. As for the title - unless you read the summary - it truly doesn't give you any sense of where the plot is going.

Unfortunately for someone who likes watching the "Dear Kitten" videos that were brought in by Friskies and the Haiku cat series this is a true shameful book. Although the writing was simple and easy with a bit of rhyme to help keep childrens' attention that was about the only thing good that could be mentioned about it.

The illustrations were a bit stranger than most people are used to. And although other books with similar illustrations are able to pull it off this is just not one of them. The colors were too harsh in certain circumstances thus making it harder for readers to see such details such as the faces of the cats, especially when it comes to the kitten, although the birds were decent.

Most definitely if you want a decent book about introducing a cat to a new family member that doesn't have to be a cat go for Haiku. And if that won't do then pull up Youtube then look up the Dear Kitten videos - with the kitten pouncing all over the place you can forgive yourself from leaving the world of books to enjoy the words of wisdom provided by the older cat as he takes control of raising his younger housemate to be a better cat in the long run.

[Ashlynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was disappointing. There was no real plot or value to the book.

[Bethany Corkran · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fiction picture book, top cat describes his only job, to guard the house. He says nothing interesting usually happens until the striped cat invades his space! He is very caught off guard, so the two of them fight for a while. Then he decides that he will be stuck with striped cat, so he will accept him into his daily routine. They jump on the couch and drink from the sink and enjoy their cat life. I enjoyed this book because it is told from the cat's perspective. Also, it uses onomatopoeias and those are very fun. In my classroom, I would like to use this book as inspiration for my students to write a story from their pets point of view. They could give their animal a voice, and that would be very fun!

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Lois Ehlert invites readers into her world of gorgeous visuals, prodigious beauty, and one creative adventure after another.

Oh that Top Cat is in for a rude shock. Given that, "I don't want to share my stuff."

IN THE PAST I'VE HEARD THE EXPRESSION "CAT FIGHT'

Well, the one portrayed in this book is vivid, feeling very personal (to both cats involved, anyway).

YET THIS PICTURE BOOK, BEING BY LOIS EHLERT

Fight or no fight...

Everything that happens, every page...

It's. Always. So. Beautiful.

Everything.

Is it a happy ending or a temporary truce? Either way, I'll take it.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like how mean this cat was to the new kitten in the house. Nor did I like that it bullied it to show him who the top cat was. I'm not sure there has to be a top cat or top anything in life. But it was nice that the top cat eventually made friends with the kitten.

There are so many other more compassionate, and more entertaining books on bullies or on new people coming into your circle. I'd skip this one.

[Amy Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Top Cat has a good rhyming scheme that is fun while reading. The pictures are creative, colorful and bold. The book is bout a house cat who feels "In charge." When a new pet cat friend arrives, the house cat claims there is only room for one cat, but if the other cat stays he must do his job as a cat and not lack. ( #3 illustrator books)

[Eli Poteet · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a great bedtime story, the creator combined a precious artistic style with a sweet large font pace to create a darling quick read with plenty of actions noises. cute, sweet and highly rereadable. and its about cats. gold.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a cat lover, but this title is by Lois Ehlert and I adore her art work. Ehlert using pager collage has created a cut story of black cat having to share his house with stripped cat. Of course black cat teaches striped cat all of his tricks. Charming.

[Jeimy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone with multiple cats I enjoyed this story about how the eldest cat had to adapt to a younger kitty in the house and the shenanigans they got up to. However, it is Ehlert's collages that are the real star of the show bring these mischievous kitties to life!

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top Cat stands as one of my favorite Lois Ehlert books. If you have more than one cat than Top Cat will hit home, it is a very true and silly story of what happens when solo cat is no longer solo.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book for story hour!

[Marti (Letstalkaboutbooksbaybee) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear this was my cat Danny when we brought other kitty Neville home

[Liam's Mama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book fun art. Mild kitty violence if you have sensitive children. Overall my kids enjoyed it

[Pam Neale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely love Plume, so I bought this too. The storyline and illustrations are just not as good.

[The Transmuted Tree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red 2nd

[Laura Gibbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a very simple story line. There is a cat living in a house, who considers himself the guard for that house. He says his job is boring, and doesn’t seem to like it too much, but then a new kitten comes into the house and he doesn’t like it at first. He doesn’t want to share his stuff! He even says that he’ll fight the cat because he doesn’t like him at all. Once he realizes the cat is here to stay, he begins to change his mind about him and seems to enjoy spending time with him and teaches him the tricks of the house, such as testing his claws on the birds outside. The interesting thing about this book is how it has the sounds of things (such as ‘jingle jingle’ under the cat’s collar) written on the pages, so you can make the sounds while you are reading.
I like that this book can teach the sounds, but feel like it’s kind of set up weird. I like the story line, it’s simple, but the illustrations seem to be really big and in your face. I feel like they are a little hard to focus on at times, or differentiate what each page is about. This could be used to help your children in your room learn sounds around them or sounds that cats make. Thematically, it would be great when learning about cats!

[Eric Summers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of the types of illustrations used in this book. There is no real detail and some of the illustrations, such as when the new cat steps outside for the first time, merely look like a big blob of color. Also, and this is no fault of the author I suppose, the book is very narrow but the illustrations cover both pages, so if you want to see the whole picture, you have to literally stretch the binding way out so that you can see the middle part of the pictures. Even if you think this book is the greatest in the world, it is not going to be long before the pages are falling out.

Might be good as a bedtime story for very young kids, but not as a classroom read-aloud or part of any lessons.

[Barbara Radisavljevic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally like cat stories and I'm an Ehlert fan, but this book disappointed me. Until I read the publisher summary, I could not figure out that the new cat had arrived in a box. Maybe I missed something on that page with the letters at the bottom I couldn't decode. The first word, partially in the book gutter, turned out to be "human," but the one under it is still a mystery to me. The cat's tail is covering too much of it. The book does capture cat personality pretty well, and it would be fun to read aloud. The letters are also big enough to be friendly to beginning readers.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story line of this book I found pretty interesting. Top Cat introduces himself and procedes to express his feelings about a new cat being introduced to his house. The text is large which would be good for beginning readers. There are also onomatopoeias on each page. The story also rhymes and includes questions on some pages. I thought this book may be good for a child that is having a new sibling coming into the family. In the end the Top Cat takes car of the new younger cat and they get along.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book years before I had my son. The wonderful dimensional illustrations look almost exactly like my cats -- just add a mustache to the black and white one and some speckles to the striped one -- and the story was almost exactly theirs. My cats, like the ones in the book, can go from hissing to kissing and back again in two seconds flat.

My son loves our cats, so maybe it isn't too surprising that he would also love this book.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat owners will recognize the behavior described here, when a new cat is introducted into a household that already has a cat. Rivalry, jealousy, teaching the new one all the bad habits... Ah yes, just like at my house!
Cute book. Recommended.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

A self described "Top Cat" is reluctant to accept another cat into the household, but relents and gives it some advice.

I had 3 younger children at storytime and chose Ehlert as a simpler, shorter story.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars -- This story will be instantly familiar to those living with multiple cats: A new kitten comes home from the shelter, and the resident cat goes through stages of anger, jealousy, and acceptance.

[Taylor Troncin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was read for Wesley’s summer reading club. Wesley is my (soon to be five year old) son. This review is what we used for his reading club.
***

This was sort of an odd book. Realistic, but not very child-like. However, Wesley enjoyed the story a lot.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son likes this book. The print is nice and large and the story is simple. The Lois Ehlert's illustrations are always fun and I think he appreciates these. The cats dancing with the silverware always makes him smile.

[Dominique St-pierre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book for talking to kids about friendship, acceptance, and looking beyond what one sees on the outside. Lois Ehlert has a way of using extremely simple language to deliver extremely important messages.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are hilarious.

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Ehlert book- so awesome illustrations abound. Rhyming text.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, and the kids like it.