cover image Cat on the Run in Cat of Death! (Cat on the Run #1)

Cat on the Run in Cat of Death! (Cat on the Run #1)

Aaron Blabey. Scholastic, $7.99 paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-338-83182-5

Fluffy, white anthropomorphic cat Princess Beautiful, an online influencer, gets a reality check when she’s forced on the run in this harebrained graphic novel by Blabey (the Bad Guys series). Feline social media megastar Beautiful has it all: 2.2 billion adoring fans, even more billions of views on her oh-so-cute cat videos, and several assistants who are ready to fulfill her every whim, even during inconvenient moments. Today, the “World’s Favorite Kitty” is preparing for a date with handsome feline and billionaire heir Catrick Cash. Distracted by swoony daydreams while filming a new video of her using the computer, Beautiful doesn’t notice that her device has been hacked and that she has accidentally armed nuclear missiles. Suddenly, Beautiful goes from a beloved media figure to a wanted global villain. Now a fugitive, Beautiful seeks the real culprit—the evil Red Scorpion—while being relentlessly hunted by mouse deputy Marshall Cheeseman. Rough-hewn b&w illustrations with red accents portray Beautiful as a prim and proper feline who’s used to the finer things in life in an antics-filled series launch that effectively captures the absurdity of social media fame while building to a cat-tastic cliffhanger. Ages 7–10. (Sept.)