Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn: A Picture Book

by Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Adorable, fun and deceptively meaningful, this is the perfect book to start teaching young minds the importance of identity.

From bestselling and award-winning superstar duo Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham comes a delightful kitty and unicorn picture-book story that celebrates the magic of friendship—and being exactly who you want to be!

A New York Times bestseller!

“[Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn] has a big heart.” —New York Times

Kitty thinks she might be a unicorn.

She feels so perfectly unicorn-y! “Neigh!” says Kitty.

But when Unicorn clop clop clops over, sweeping his magnificent tail and neighing a mighty neigh, Kitty feels no bigger than a ball of lint.

Can this unlikely pair embrace who they are and truly see each other?

In their first picture book together, the magical, bestselling team of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham put their horns together for the most heart-bursting, tail-twitching, fuzzy-feeling, perfectly unicorn-y story imaginable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419750915
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Series:	Kitty-Corn Series , #1
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 12.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

LeUyen Pham and Shannon Hale are the team behind the bestselling picture books Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn and Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn, the bestselling graphic novels Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever, and, with Dean Hale, the early chapter book series the Princess in Black. They’ve made a bunch of other books, too. They are both: moms of kids who love parties, wives to husbands who give them homemade cards, honor award winners (Caldecott and Newbery), caretakers of cats, and believers in unicorns. Pham lives in Los Angeles, Hale lives in Utah, and although they also have friends close to home, their best friend hearts are always entwined.

LeUyen Pham and Shannon Hale are the team behind the bestselling picture books Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn and Pretty Perfect Kitty-Corn, the bestselling graphic novels Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever, and, with Dean Hale, the early chapter book series the Princess in Black. They’ve made a bunch of other books, too. They are both: moms of kids who love parties, wives to husbands who give them homemade cards, honor award winners (Caldecott and Newbery), caretakers of cats, and believers in unicorns. Pham lives in Los Angeles, Hale lives in Utah, and although they also have friends close to home, their best friend hearts are always entwined.

Editorial Reviews

"Unicorn fans will definitely identify with Hale’s protagonist and respond well to Pham’s bright cartoons... Likely to cause some imaginative prancing among unicorn and kitty lovers."

Kirkus Reviews

"A breathtakingly adorable picture book. . .capture(s) the poignance of the struggle to find oneself."

Shelf Awareness

**STARRED REVIEW**
"What ostensibly starts out as an almost criminally cute tale of pretend play transforms into something much more: a celebration of claiming and naming one’s identity and having it affirmed by others."

Publishers Weekly

"There’s poignancy... A paean to self-perception, self-actualization, and finding one’s people amongst the neigh-sayers."

The Horn Book Magazine

"This newest Hale-Pham collaboration features appealing characters, laugh-out-loud humor, and clever plot twists."

Booklist

"Hale and Pham bring the charm and whimsy of their Princess in Black series to this picture book, conveying the same message of self-love and confidence with the candy-colored art and a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed feline who is the dream of cat meme makers everywhere."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

**STARRED REVIEW**
"What ostensibly starts out as an almost criminally cute tale of pretend play transforms into something much more: a celebration of claiming and naming one’s identity and having it affirmed by others." —Publishers Weekly

"This newest Hale-Pham collaboration features appealing characters, laugh-out-loud humor, and clever plot twists."—Booklist

"Hale and Pham bring the charm and whimsy of their Princess in Black series to this picture book, conveying the same message of self-love and confidence with the candy-colored art and a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed feline who is the dream of cat meme makers everywhere." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"There’s poignancy... A paean to self-perception, self-actualization, and finding one’s people amongst the neigh-sayers."—The Horn Book Magazine

"Unicorn fans will definitely identify with Hale’s protagonist and respond well to Pham’s bright cartoons... Likely to cause some imaginative prancing among unicorn and kitty lovers." —Kirkus Reviews

"A breathtakingly adorable picture book. . .capture(s) the poignance of the struggle to find oneself."

—Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

2021-01-27
Is Kitty only a kitten? Or might she be a noble unicorn?

Inspired by the unicorn on her poster, Kitty crafts a perfect horn and admires herself in the mirror. She feels “unicorn-y.” Her friends disagree. “ ‘You’re not a unicorn, putty-pie,’ says Parakeet. / ‘You’re curled up like a cat, fluffy-fry,’ says Gecko.” So Kitty uncurls to prance and gallop, but her detractors point out her tiny tail. With some effort she plumps it up. They tell her she will never be a unicorn because she meows like a cat; this, of course, prompts her to let out a loud “NEIGH!” Parakeet and Gecko are having none of it, each time varying their mild name-calling. As the sun dips low, Kitty’s sure her long shadow looks like a unicorn’s—until a real unicorn clops into view. Gecko and Parakeet are impressed, and Kitty feels insignificant. But this unicorn has a secret…a pair of fluffy, pink kitty ears the same pink as Kitty’s. They can be kitty-corns together, best friends. Unicorn fans will definitely identify with Hale’s protagonist and respond well to Pham’s bright cartoons, laid out as spot illustrations that pop against the mostly all-white backgrounds. The way Kitty’s friends dismissively poke fun with their name-calling may give some readers pause, but the be-true-to-the-inner-you message and the expressive characterizations add appeal. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 51.2% of actual size.)

Likely to cause some imaginative prancing among unicorn and kitty lovers. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews