The Cats Who Wanted More by Katie Sahota

My daughter Freya loves Cats, so this book was an immediate hit before we even opened the cover. The story waiting inside was a suprise though, even to me. I have never been so amused, yet so triggered at the same time, whilst reading a children's story. All the political points and digs at the government hit me on the very first read through, though the politics weren't picked up on by my daughter.

To Freya this was a story about cats being greedy, treating others unfairly and then the mice and rats working together to make things right. To me, this was a pretty hilarious but very accurate and sad depiction of life in lock down, how we were lied too and told we were in this together, whilst parties happened behind closed doors, the media blamed everyone else and turned people with differences against eachother, whilst the elite did what they please. I'll try not to rant but yep, it's pretty deep and political, but only if you know about all these things. The "dear friends, we have ALL found ourselves in the middle of a crisis" line actually made me roll my eyes. I honestly read it in that silly politician tone of voice they use, and then I laughed so much turning over the page to see all the cats partying when they thought the rats and mice weren't looking.

I'm not sure if the rats and mice being different "races of rodent", and quite literally one side being black and one white, was purposely done to make a point on how race and the black lives matter movement was a huge media topic at the time and how divided people do keep the elite powerful. When the rats and mice realise in the story that they are being turned against eachother, and lied too, they work together to take the cats down and put things right. They chewed through cables to "take away their power". It is so deep but so perfectly written.

The words alone spoke to me and my daughter in very different ways but then the illustrations just took it to another level! There is toilet roll everywhere. Hoarded in great big stacks. Then there's covid lateral flow tests and masks in the sewers and certain cats looks quite familiar... These details were missed by my daughter but she did love the cats sitting on toilets and found it hilarious when they all got their bums stuck in cat flaps from being too greedy. This book really does capture a part of British history, that we will look back on. It is also a story about morals, doing what's right and only taking your own fair share. It's just brilliant. I love it.

A very different book from those we normally read, I'll be honest, the first time I looked through it... I wasn't sure. It seems quite long and my 4 year old struggled with focussing on longer books. However when we read it he actually liked it. We read it in a couple of parts, but he loved the idea of the greedy cats. Some of the detail went quite over his head as the themes have a little more complexity to many of our other books, but I think it's one he'll grow into.

I love the political jibe and undercurrent to this book. It's great when adults get more of a kick out of story time too.

I do think my 4 year old struggled with it as a whole book and probably goes for other stories before this one, but he does like it. So maybe one for slightly older children.

Love the detail in the illustrations, if you haven't looked at these in detail yet, do. There are some really funny bits.

I loved this. It's like one of those jokes in kids films that goes straight over the kids' heads and just seems like a nice film but the adults totally get it.

Satirical and brilliant, The Cats Who Wanted More is a great read about greed which follows closely with the shambles of politics in the UK for the last few years.

Rats and mice who normally get by on the scraps are pitted against each other by the greedy cats who want to keep all the food for themselves after watching the humans who have all been working from home and learning how to order online.

The illustrations are great and a particular birthday party scene stood out to me though the kids preferred the cat pooping on the treadmill

What a lovely book! I read this with my 5 and 2 year old. My 2 year old loves cats and my 5 year old in particular enjoyed the funny pictures. I love how this book reinforces the importance of sharing and not being greedy in a child friendly way. In the words of my son, '20/10!' Thank you Babipur!