Cats in Construction Hats

by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Leeza Hernandez (Illustrator)

Overview

Colorful cats in construction hats are on the job to build a house in this adorable, bouncy, rhyming picture book! Kids will delight in learning about colors while giggling at the hilarious antics of these forklift driving kitties.

Yellow cat. Green hat.
Dig this. Clear that.

Green cat. Orange hat.
Mix this. Pour that.

Six colorful cats work together to build a house...with just a little help (and mischief) from some tiny rat friends. Little readers will delight in following along with the simple rhyming text, big construction vehicles, and the failures and triumphs that come with a big project! Bulldozers, cement trucks, excavators, and even a giant crane feature in this story, but each read through also offers smaller details to discover!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593706862
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Series:	Cats in Hats , #1
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.25(w) x 9.31(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen has never met a mermaid, but she did have three cats in college. She is the author of many books for young readers, including the Mermicorns series, Duck, Duck, Moose!; Chicks Run Wild; Hampire!; and Snoring Beauty. She lives in New Jersey with her family and an imaginary pony named Penny.

Leeza Hernandez grew up on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. She’s lost count of the times she searched the neighborhood for her curious cats who had taken off for adventures. Now, Leeza lives in Florida with her husband, daughter, and band of curious critters.

Editorial Reviews

"A fresh twist that spotlights strengths individual and communal, while offering cat and construction aficionados plenty to savor." —Publishers Weekly

"A message of determination and cooperation, conveyed with a kid-friendly combo of colors, trucks, and cute kittens." —Kirkus Reviews

"A breezy assemblage of wordplay fun and purposeful, house-building, and cute, fuzzy workers in hard hats, this is just the ticket for younger audiences." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

2024-12-14
Fun-loving, hard-hatted felines romp through difficulties to collaborative triumph.

Starting with the blueprint endpapers, this book offers readers plenty to pore over as a kitty crew builds a perfect cat condo. Though the workers wear Day-Glo construction vests, sharp eyes will spot the color of their fur underneath. The cats are organized both by fur and hat color. “Yellow cat. Green hat.” “Green cat. Orange hat.” The laboring felines add brief commands in speech balloons presented in a sans serif font (“Dig this.” “Clear that”), making every four lines a rhythmic, rhyming quatrain. Readers who prefer vehicles to animals will delight in seeing the bulldozers, dump truck, forklift, and hydraulic crane in action. Some workers are more interested in having fun than in getting the job done, like the green cat happily wading in a pool of concrete and the orange cat blithely juggling bricks. This OSHA-ignoring carelessness results in a spectacular accident (“BOOM! CRASH! SPLAT!”) and an exclamation (“RATS!”)—a reference to the rodents who can be found in every scene. But now cats and rats all “work together,” clean up, get dressed up, and celebrate their success with a ribbon cutting. Bright illustrations reminiscent of Richard Scarry’s work will stand up to the rereads sure to be requested.

A message of determination and cooperation, conveyed with a kid-friendly combo of colors, trucks, and cute kittens.(Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews