REVIEW: What If I’m Not a Cat?

Details

Author: Kari-Lynn Winters
Illustrator: Kelly Collier
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Year of Publication: 2023

Review

In What If I’m Not a Cat, a donkey who lives in a barn with a dozen or so cats mistakenly believes himself to be one of them, despite feeling like something isn’t quite right. When Farmer makes a passing comment about Donkey acting like a cat (with negative connotation attached), Donkey spirals into an existential crisis. Donkey is faced with the possibility of forever feeling like he doesn’t quite belong, or he needs to find his just-right place on the farm.

The story is slow to start and the ending comes rather suddenly. It joins a long list of stories that rely on the trope of an animal who believes they are another type of animal. The illustrations are muted with simple backgrounds, allowing for a focus on the story. There are a couple surprises, like the real cat who has their own existential crisis, but mostly the story follows expected conventions of the trope. The text is strewn with a lot of descriptive words that will be difficult for young kids to sound out (e.g. scraggly, tufty, dainty, etc.). Most will need a lot of help from an older reader.

Farmer presents as a plus-sized white female, while the rest of the characters are animals.

Good for shelves otherwise lacking in these types of stories.

Reviewed digitally via NetGalley.