Scan barcode
wrentheblurry's review
3.0
GENRE: Fiction, graphic novel.
SUMMARY: In a bizarre birthday-cake candle blowing incident, Kiki Kittie was struck by a vase and then hit on the head with a bunch of fashion magazines, which turned her into Fashion Kitty, able to hear fashion calls of despair. She rushes to the aid of friends and strangers alike, preventing fashion mishaps of the first degree.
EVALUATION: As a die-hard tomboy, I find obvious 'girly' titles like this a bit difficult to take. However, the artwork was well done, and the storyline is cute. I especially liked how Fashion Kitty finds her place in her family, and finds a purpose in her life. She is also quite helpful and friendly to the other kitties at school, which will hopefully raise their social status.
WHY I WOULD INCLUDE IT: This is a fine graphic novel title for young tween girls, and is popular enough to have spawned a couple of sequels. In the middle of the book the reader will find mix-and-match fashion plates, which, if they photocopy the library's version, will let them pretend to be Fashion Kitty, and make up their own sorts of outfits.
READER'S ANNOTATION: A new superhero is born after Kiki Kittie is hit with a bunch of fashion magazines, enabling her to respond and fix fashion cries for help!
ITEMS WITH SIMILAR APPEAL:
• The Warrior series by Erin Hunter.
SUMMARY: In a bizarre birthday-cake candle blowing incident, Kiki Kittie was struck by a vase and then hit on the head with a bunch of fashion magazines, which turned her into Fashion Kitty, able to hear fashion calls of despair. She rushes to the aid of friends and strangers alike, preventing fashion mishaps of the first degree.
EVALUATION: As a die-hard tomboy, I find obvious 'girly' titles like this a bit difficult to take. However, the artwork was well done, and the storyline is cute. I especially liked how Fashion Kitty finds her place in her family, and finds a purpose in her life. She is also quite helpful and friendly to the other kitties at school, which will hopefully raise their social status.
WHY I WOULD INCLUDE IT: This is a fine graphic novel title for young tween girls, and is popular enough to have spawned a couple of sequels. In the middle of the book the reader will find mix-and-match fashion plates, which, if they photocopy the library's version, will let them pretend to be Fashion Kitty, and make up their own sorts of outfits.
READER'S ANNOTATION: A new superhero is born after Kiki Kittie is hit with a bunch of fashion magazines, enabling her to respond and fix fashion cries for help!
ITEMS WITH SIMILAR APPEAL:
• The Warrior series by Erin Hunter.
bookgirl4ever's review
4.0
Kiki Kittie comes from a progressive family. The girls are ready to wear whatever they want and the parents are vegetarians allowing them to have a pet mouse. On Kiki's birthday, she is about to blow out the candles on her cake when a shelf above her head breaks, sending a pile of fashion magazines on her head. Kiki wakes up to find she can fly and put together an extremely fashionable outfit in a matter of seconds. Thus is born her superheroine alter ego Fashion Kitty.
Middle elementary school.
Middle elementary school.
corncobwebs's review
Kiki Kitty is a just a regular cat until a stack of fashion magazines bonks her on the head while she is making her birthday wish. Then she becomes...Fashion Kitty! She gains the power to fly, and goes all over to help people avoid fashion disasters. In this installment, Fashion Kitty's main goal is to help a fashion outcast avoid embarrassment, and to teach a school bully a lesson. She succeeds (quite fashionably, of course), and leaves the world just a bit more stylish.
Very cute, very fun. This is a perfect read-alike for kids who love Babymouse. The one thing that kills me about this book is that the illustration of the cat father reminds me so strongly of an illustration of a book from my childhood, yet I can't for the life of me remember what it is! If you have any ideas, make sure to shoot them my way!
Very cute, very fun. This is a perfect read-alike for kids who love Babymouse. The one thing that kills me about this book is that the illustration of the cat father reminds me so strongly of an illustration of a book from my childhood, yet I can't for the life of me remember what it is! If you have any ideas, make sure to shoot them my way!
librarydosebykristy's review
3.0
Lucia wants to read anything featuring a cat or an owl. This is a silly, fluffy, story , but Lucia is entranced.
cuocuo's review
4.0
A freak accident turns ordinary Kiki Kitty into Fashion Kitty, a superhero dedicated to righting fashion wrongs the world over.
Aimed squarely at the [b:Babymouse|476909|Babymouse Queen of the World! |Jennifer L. Holm|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175090952s/476909.jpg|2670091] demographic, Fashion Kitty's silly humor is likely to win over even the most reluctant reader. The pink and gray color scheme, glittery cover, cartoon illustrations, and girl friendly subject matter will pique young girls' interest, even if they do not usually read graphic novels. Parents and educators will appreciate the "clean" subject matter. The book's length would be perfect for a single Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) session. An eight page panel in the center of the book allowing the reader to mix and match outfits adds interest (although its fragility is sure to give librarians headaches.) Kitty and its sequels, [b:Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen|57477|Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen (Fashion Kitty (Graphic Novels))|Charise Mericle Harper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255725355s/57477.jpg|55997] (2007) and [b:Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero|2509668|Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero|Charise Mericle Harper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255907214s/2509668.jpg|2517039] (2008) are recommended for purchase in public libraries.
Aimed squarely at the [b:Babymouse|476909|Babymouse Queen of the World! |Jennifer L. Holm|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175090952s/476909.jpg|2670091] demographic, Fashion Kitty's silly humor is likely to win over even the most reluctant reader. The pink and gray color scheme, glittery cover, cartoon illustrations, and girl friendly subject matter will pique young girls' interest, even if they do not usually read graphic novels. Parents and educators will appreciate the "clean" subject matter. The book's length would be perfect for a single Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) session. An eight page panel in the center of the book allowing the reader to mix and match outfits adds interest (although its fragility is sure to give librarians headaches.) Kitty and its sequels, [b:Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen|57477|Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen (Fashion Kitty (Graphic Novels))|Charise Mericle Harper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255725355s/57477.jpg|55997] (2007) and [b:Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero|2509668|Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero|Charise Mericle Harper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255907214s/2509668.jpg|2517039] (2008) are recommended for purchase in public libraries.
mrskatiefitz's review
5.0
This review covers the first three books of the Fashion Kitty series.
Though I love Charise Mericle Harper, it took me a long time to get around to reading Fashion Kitty. I love the Just Grace series and her picture book, Cupcake, so it really was just a matter of time, but since I am neither a fashionista nor a cat lady, a book combining those two themes didn't necessarily strike me as a good fit. Finally, though, all three volumes - Fashion Kitty (2005), Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen(2007), and Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero (2008) - were sitting on my library shelf one day, and I decided it was time. I snatched them all up, took them home, and read them one right after the other.
The Fashion Kitty books are graphic novels, drawn to look girly. The covers sparkle with glitter, and the illustrations are colored with pink, purple, and gray ink. Fashion Kitty herself wears pink and purple, as does her alter ago, Kiki Kittie, and Kiki's sister, Lana.
Kiki Kittie becomes Fashion Kitty for the first time on her birthday. She makes a wish, and subsequently gets smacked in the head with a pile of fashion magazines. From then on, either from the wish, or the blow to the head, or both, whenever a fashion faux pas is committed in her town, Kiki turns into Fashion Kitty and flies off to save the day. (She has no control over when this might happen, but it often occurs at dinner time, much to her mother's dismay.)
Fashion Kitty's powers are as follows:
Brain that can mix and match hundreds of outfits in a second
Ears that hear the distress call of someone in need of fashion help
X-ray eyes that can see through buildings or anything else that's in the way
Heart, mostly good
Tail of comfort. One touch of the tail makes everything seem all right.
Supersonic feet that make Fashion Kitty really bounce (p.36)
Fashion Kitty is really popular and famous, but she has a nemesis or two. In Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen, she must deal with a new girl in town who has banned all the girls from wearing the color pink. In Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero, the principal of Kiki's own school is on anti-fashion rampage and forces all the students to wear uniforms. Fashion Kitty has to work hard to fight for fashion and earn back her friends' rights to dress how they want.
Kiki Kittie is a vegetarian, and so are all her family members. This means that, while other cats eat mice, they actually have a secret pet named Mousie. They are also unusual in that both girls, Kiki and Lana, are permitted to dress in whatever funky styles they want, and their parents encourage it. Lana is also just a really great four-year-old character. She's not jealous that she's not Fashion Kitty, she just wishes Kiki could stay Fashion Kitty long enough to play with her when she gets home from a mission.
Overall, I have to say, these books are a lot of fun. They are not just watered down versions of stereotypically masculine superhero stories. They celebrate all that is fun about being female, and put a unique and creative twist on the superhero genre. I did notice a lot of similarities between Grace from the Just Grace series and Fashion Kitty - both are strongly empathetic, and both are hugely optimistic, and always try to look toward the positive - but while Grace is bound by the rules of reality, Fashion Kitty gets to play with those boundaries a bit more, pushing them to their limits and saving the world, in her own way, one fashion disaster at a time.
An excellent series for third and fourth grade girls.
Though I love Charise Mericle Harper, it took me a long time to get around to reading Fashion Kitty. I love the Just Grace series and her picture book, Cupcake, so it really was just a matter of time, but since I am neither a fashionista nor a cat lady, a book combining those two themes didn't necessarily strike me as a good fit. Finally, though, all three volumes - Fashion Kitty (2005), Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen(2007), and Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero (2008) - were sitting on my library shelf one day, and I decided it was time. I snatched them all up, took them home, and read them one right after the other.
The Fashion Kitty books are graphic novels, drawn to look girly. The covers sparkle with glitter, and the illustrations are colored with pink, purple, and gray ink. Fashion Kitty herself wears pink and purple, as does her alter ago, Kiki Kittie, and Kiki's sister, Lana.
Kiki Kittie becomes Fashion Kitty for the first time on her birthday. She makes a wish, and subsequently gets smacked in the head with a pile of fashion magazines. From then on, either from the wish, or the blow to the head, or both, whenever a fashion faux pas is committed in her town, Kiki turns into Fashion Kitty and flies off to save the day. (She has no control over when this might happen, but it often occurs at dinner time, much to her mother's dismay.)
Fashion Kitty's powers are as follows:
Brain that can mix and match hundreds of outfits in a second
Ears that hear the distress call of someone in need of fashion help
X-ray eyes that can see through buildings or anything else that's in the way
Heart, mostly good
Tail of comfort. One touch of the tail makes everything seem all right.
Supersonic feet that make Fashion Kitty really bounce (p.36)
Fashion Kitty is really popular and famous, but she has a nemesis or two. In Fashion Kitty Versus the Fashion Queen, she must deal with a new girl in town who has banned all the girls from wearing the color pink. In Fashion Kitty and the Unlikely Hero, the principal of Kiki's own school is on anti-fashion rampage and forces all the students to wear uniforms. Fashion Kitty has to work hard to fight for fashion and earn back her friends' rights to dress how they want.
Kiki Kittie is a vegetarian, and so are all her family members. This means that, while other cats eat mice, they actually have a secret pet named Mousie. They are also unusual in that both girls, Kiki and Lana, are permitted to dress in whatever funky styles they want, and their parents encourage it. Lana is also just a really great four-year-old character. She's not jealous that she's not Fashion Kitty, she just wishes Kiki could stay Fashion Kitty long enough to play with her when she gets home from a mission.
Overall, I have to say, these books are a lot of fun. They are not just watered down versions of stereotypically masculine superhero stories. They celebrate all that is fun about being female, and put a unique and creative twist on the superhero genre. I did notice a lot of similarities between Grace from the Just Grace series and Fashion Kitty - both are strongly empathetic, and both are hugely optimistic, and always try to look toward the positive - but while Grace is bound by the rules of reality, Fashion Kitty gets to play with those boundaries a bit more, pushing them to their limits and saving the world, in her own way, one fashion disaster at a time.
An excellent series for third and fourth grade girls.
More...