This is such a fun graphic novel. Katie takes a job catsitting only to discover that it's not a few cats, but 217. And these cats are anything but typical felines. Not only is Katie trying to manage this job, but she begins to suspect the neighbor she is working for is a super villain. Cat lovers, especially, will love this read!

To be honest, I was not sure what to expect from this book.  I was cautiously optimistic it would be interesting and 2nd-4th grade appropriate.  I was pleasantly surprised.  This book was so fun and packed with strong female characters.  The theme of animal protection is great for Elementary students.  

I struggle with Graphic Novels in our school library.  So often, the subject matter is too advanced for the language used and I end up with a Graphic Novel too advanced for Elementary and too boring for Middle School.  This book is the solution to this problem.  The subject matter and language line up perfectly.  The graphics are very Elementary School appropriate.  I will be happy to add this book to our library and will recommend it to my 2nd-5th Graders.  I can also see Middle School students who are passionate about Graphic Novels enjoying this book.

I love the Main characters are all Female.  They all feel extremely organic and not contrived.  There are flaws in the main character (Katie).  Like any great mentor, Madeline sees through these flaws and guides Katie to become a better version of herself.  In my opinion, that is the value in this book.  At the same time, this theme is not forced on the reader.  It is laid out in a way that washes over the reader and carries through the story.  This relationship also sets up the plot of a sequel nicely.

I will purchase this book for our school library.

I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy.  The opinions expressed in this review are all mine.  #netgalley  #katiethecatsitter

Katie needs a job to go to summer camp. After she tries a few jobs, she gets a sweet gig cat sitting. Only it's for 217 cats. Also, they and their owner could be a supervillain? Love, love, love!!! All the stars to the graphic novel, and not just because I have a cat on my lap right now.  :)

What a fun start to what I hope to be a series about superheroes and super villains! Katie is desperate to attend summer camp with her friends but doesn't have the funds. She is determined to earn money for a week at camp by cat-sitting for a neighbor in her apartment building. Katie realizes these are no ordinary cats, and her neighbor is no ordinary person. Katie is determined to figure out who her neighbor really is, make money to attend camp, and cope with her friend's changing personality. This is a fun read for fans of character and friendship-driven graphic novels with some superheroes sprinkled in. Love the art as well.

Katie the Catsitter is perfect for fans who like cats and superheroes.  In this graphic novel, Katie tries to save money to go to camp with her friends.  The only job that she seems to be good at it watching her neighbor's cats - the hundred or so cats who seem to have special abilities.  There is also something not quite right with the neighbor who owns these cats, so Katie tries to solve the mystery.  This story was action packed and fun.  Readers are sure to enjoy what appears to be the start of a great series.  I can't wait to read more.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Katie is the only child of a single mom and spends a lot of time entertaining herself. When school ends and her best friends go off to summer camp, Katie just wants to join them too. Unfortunately she doesn't have any money, and neither does her mom. She tries to get herself hired out to people in her apartment building, but soon realizes that she's not as qualified as she thinks. Until Ms. Lang hires her nightly to watch her cats. All her cats. All 217 of them.  Which shouldn't be a problem right? Until Katie realizes that these cats have some very special talents, and so does their owner. In a world where there are superheroes and villains, Katie has to determine who's on which side and whose side it right, all while taking care of 217 cats and saving money for camp. With bright, colorful pictures, and lots of entertainment, this is a great graphic novel for any middle schooler.

Katie wants to go to camp with her best friends this summer, but her mom can't afford to send her. So, Katie decides to earn the money to pay for camp, by any means necessary. She tries several ways to earn money, all of which fail until Ms. Lang hires Katie to be her catsitter, for 217 cats! And these aren't just any cats, they each have their own set of special skills such as knitting, kickboxing, and computer hacking. These cats are downright evil! Slowly, Katie begins to learn how to take care of the cats and curb some of their more evil habits, such as couch stealing and ordering jet engines from the internet. She also begins to suspect that Ms. Lang is the supervillain the Mousetress. Eventually, it is revealed that this is true when she is captured and Katie and the cats have to rescue her. The Mousetress turns out not to be so evil after all. She just wants to help animals. Katie ends up putting her catsitting money towards a vet school fund, not going to camp, making new friends, and becoming Mousetress's sidekick. I can't wait for the next book!

This book is amazing and I love it. It has everything that is great about the universe. Cats? Check. Superheroes? Check. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Check. I was constantly laughing because of how funny it was. I was trying to pick my favorite cat, but I couldn't.. I love them all. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

My daughter (age 8) loved this book. She thought it was very funny and it took her only a few hours to read it.  It was a cute storyline- all the cats had something special about them she especially liked the cat who could speak Spanish. The pictures were darling and the book was easy to read. It also had a happy ending!

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Katie lives in an apartment building with her mother, who frequently has to work. In order to earn money to join her friend at an expensive summer camp, Katie puts up a flyer advertising her services for many kinds of jobs-- babysitting, plant sitting, carrying groceries, etc. She doesn't have much luck with the jobs, some of which end more disastrously than others. When Ms. Lang sees her interacting with the store cat at a convenience store Katie frequents, she hires Katie to cat sit in the evening until midnight. The catch-- there are over 200 cats. They are all super interested in a variety of things but wreak havoc every night, managing to repair all of the damage to the apartment before Ms. Lang returns home at the stroke of midnight, even if it involves repeatedly stealing couches belonging to the building busy body. The New York City in which Katie lives has a variety of super heroes, including the confusing Owl Guy, but also Mousetress, who is a supervillain. As she spends more time with the cats in Ms. Lang's apartment, Katie starts to suspect that her employer is, in fact, Mousetress. When Mousetress is imprisoned, can Katie find out the real reason behind her arrest, and save the day with the help of the cats?
Strengths: While fantasy graphic novels don't always do well in my library, this book has two things that make it very appealing: colorful illustrations of the Telgemeier/Jamieson school, and CATS. I am always a fan of books that involve tweens trying to make money or follow interests, so I enjoyed watching Katie try her hand at some money making endeavors. I loved that she watched the cats in the evening; I had a babysitting job in the 6th grade that went from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. because the mother was a nurse. The super hero story is very appealing as well, and the mystery about who was good and who was evil will appeal to tweens. Including friend drama always works well in middle grade books. 
Weaknesses: Because there are a lot of DC and Marvel comic book characters and I am not too well versed in these, I'm never sure if books are based on these characters or if they are just completely new stories. Primer was a good example of a book I wasn't sure about, although Squirrel Girl, against all odds, is a Marvel character. 
What I really think: I will purchase this one, and it looks to be a series.

Bless this book for not exactly being about a tween catsitter. There's nothing wrong with Raina Telgemeier, but I'm a bit maxed out on Telgemeier-alikes right now (see "Allergic" or "Stepping Stones"--both GOOD, but both just...more Telgemeier). Venable's twist delighted me, especially as the framing before the twist (I can't afford to go to camp with my friends, so I'm going to try to get odd jobs in my apartment building to save enough up to join them for a week) was so familiar-sounding (I guess maybe it's simply thoroughly realistic fiction I'm over in graphic novels?) Without giving anything away: great cat names, great cat skills. I'm glad that young readers expecting another realistic graphic novel will be surprised by this as I was, and hope the surprise will be as pleasant for some as it was for me.

Katie the Catsitter is more than just a typical superhero graphic novel. Venable incorporate friendship, mystery, entrepreneurship, and lots of cats, 218 to be exact. In the novel, readers are introduced to Katie, a twelve year old girl living in NYC. All Katie wants is to go to summer camp with her friends, but she can't afford it. She hatches a plan to do odds and end jobs. These do not turn out so well, that is until she starts cat sitting for Ms. Lang. 
Readers follow Katie as she develops a relationship with Ms. Lang's 217 cats and discovers what is most important. 

Katie believes Ms. Yang may be the city's villain, The Mousetress, but struggles with the idea that Ms. Lang could never be a villain. Katie will soon learn not everything is as it seems. 

Not only is this novel fun to read, young girls will connect to the humanness of Katie. Her thought processes match those of a typical preteen. She also desires what we all desire love and friendship. Venable and Yue excellently portray the different personalities of Ms. Lang's cats giving them some super-hero skills. Each cat and human character have their own personality coming through both through speaking and drawn actions. 

Overall, this light-hearted, fun, and funny read will be a plus for a library. I would recommend this to graphic novel fans, young reluctant readers, and cat lovers alike.

Katie the Catsitter was a fun read with a kick ass superhero AND main character. Katie lands a job to make money for summer camp watching a neighbor's cats...all 217 of them! She starts to notice some strange commonalities between her neighbor and a local super villain. But those things don't seem to live up with what she knows of her during the day.
Great read!

I felt like this graphic novel was just ok.  I liked the idea of the story, but I felt like the storyline had some holes in it.  The graphics were great, though.  I am mildly curious enough about the series that I would probably read the next one.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I received an electronic ARC from Random House Children's through NetGalley.
Venable creates a charming main character who has to face real world issues in a superhero city. Katie is old enough to feel the financial differences between her family (Mom and Katie) and her more affluent friends. She offers to perform various jobs for her neighbors with several disastrous results. Finally, her upstairs neighbor hires her to catsit her 217 cats while she works nights. Venable weaves enough humor through these scenes for readers to see the lighter side of Katie's problems. When you add a unique superhero and a supervillain who seems to fight for justice, readers also get to have front row seats to the reality that not everything is black and white. Not only does Katie figure out who the supervillain is, she works together with other characters (218 of them) to free her from prison. 
Readers will relate to the friend issues and difficulty in sorting out right and wrong and factoring motives into actions. Highly detailed illustrations support the story. 
Looking forward to the next adventure.

Looking for a summer job.... filled with cats and a super hero/villain shenanigans? Well here we are! This fun and quirky adventure follows a girl named Katie who is hoping to raise money to fund her trip to camp. Trying out for all sorts of job she finally lands a gig as a catsitter for her mysterious upstairs neighbor. Heres where things get weird, she’s catsitting around 200 cats and these are definitely not normal cats! Filled with fun mischief and adventure, the story is a great and fun read! Definitely would recommend it for middle grade readers ( especially for any cat lovers out there!). The artwork is adorable and this graphic novel is just a all around great read! I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Children's for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I was initially sucked in just from the description because it mentioned lots of cats, but I loved this! The surface layer of the story is a superhero/supervillain story, but beyond that it is a story about things that happen when a friendship starts to become distant and fade away. All of us have gone through it at some point, but an often time it does happen is in those transition years between middle school and high school.

It isn't just a story about Katie catsitting and finding out things about the superheroes and villians in her city, it's also somewhat about her figuring out what trajectory her life is going to take and who she's going to spend time with.

I loved so many things about it and have to point out the details and personalities that went into all of the cats. I'm not going to say much more because spoilers, but I adored it! The art also was a shining part of this book, with a muted palette that perfectly suited the mood.

This was such an adorable graphic novel! I adored the art style so much and the plot was not only cute but made some very good points.
  I loved Katie and all of the cats so much. I liked like Venable took the time to give so many cats their own personalities and jobs. I adored the cats. I wanted each and every one them! (and I'm a dog person) 
  Venable not only made a cute graphic novel with kitties they also hit some great plot points touching on things like animal abuse, friendship, and even good and evil but in a way that was easy to understand by younger kids. She also managed to touch on good and evil without turning the city hero into a villain (Annoying and arrogant? yes villian? no) which is something you don't see enough of in most media. 
  Over all this was a really cute graphic novel with several great messages for adult and kids. The art is so cute and vibrant. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new take on super heroes or an animal lover or just someone who really enjoys graphic novels. This graphic really does tick all the boxes!

So basically this had me laughing so much! I loved loved loved this graphic novel! It goes without saying the CATS were my fav!

Yikes! I did not actually expect to enjoy this book so much, but I adore it! My initial thoughts are these: Ms. Sistine is kind of not-a-great teacher & I need to know more about Dr. Claw....

Fans of Telgemeier, Chmakova, and Hale are going to flip for this one. I would go so far to say that fans of the DC Superhero Girls will find some parts of this that they love as well. I think it has a very interesting blending of superhero meets real world. Distance forming in a friendship, growing up, possibly evil cats-what's not to love?

For Libraries: Take a chance on this one! It is so cute.