How to Give Your Cat a Bath: in Five Easy Steps

by Nicola Winstanley, John Martz (Illustrator)

Overview

In this hilarious and clever "how-to" picture book, a little girl and a know-it-all narrator are thwarted by a cat who refuses to take a bath. The perfect read-aloud for fans of Snappsy the Alligator and Interrupting Chicken.

Step one: fill the bath
Step two: put the cat in the bath
Step three: put shampoo on the cat
Step four: rinse the cat
Step five: dry the cat

Seems simple, right? One problem: the cat has no intention of doing ANY of these things! Watch as the steps keep changing, the cat keeps escaping, the girl keeps eating cookies and the mess keeps escalating. Soon it's not just the cat who needs a bath — it's the whole house!

This spoof on an instruction manual features an increasingly bewildered human, a nonchalant cat and a know-it-all narrator . . . who really doesn't know it all. How DO you give a cat a bath? Read on to find out!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774883631
Publisher:	Tundra Book Group
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Series:	How to Cat books
Pages:	36
Product dimensions:	8.75(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.16(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

NICOLA WINSTANLEY has always believed in the power of stories to bring comfort. She is the author of The Pirate's Bed, A Bedtime Yarn, How to Give Your Cat a Bath and Cinnamon Baby, which won an honor prize for the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award and was shortlisted for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Nicola lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with her family, a huge cat and a tiny dog.

JOHN MARTZ is an illustrator, cartoonist and designer. He is the author and illustrator of Evie and the Truth About Witches, Burt’s Way Home, A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories and the illustrator of Who’s on First? and Crocodile Hungry. His work has also appeared in MAD Magazine and The Nib. He lives in Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

…adorably frustrating…Reminiscent of the If You Give a Moose a Muffin series, [How to Give Your Cat a Bath: in Five Easy Steps] will have young readers slapping their foreheads in exasperation, but will reward them with a sweet, funny ending…Martz's colorful line drawings match the happy, manic energy.

The New York Times Book Review - Jenny Rosenstrach

03/04/2019

A child confidently educates readers about the finer points of cat bathing. From the get-go, things don’t go as planned: first, the girl overfills the tub. “Mr. Flea,” a fluffy white cat with a pink nose that matches the girl’s pigtails, catches on to what’s happening and flees (“Step Two: Put your cat in the—wait, where is the cat?” Winstanley writes). After a housewide search for Mr. Flea, the girl takes a break for milk and cookies that is thwarted by the dive-bombing kitty, precipitating a return to the bathtub, another escape, and a seriously flooded bathroom. Martz’s expressive art lays out the runaway circumstances through vignettelike passages and dialogue balloons, capturing the experience of well-laid plans quickly unraveling into disaster. Ages 3–7. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Nominated for the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for Young People — Illustrated Text

Featured in School Library Journal's top 2019 "Funny Picture Books" list
One of CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens 2019
One of the Ontario Library Association’s 2019 Top Ten Titles

PRAISE FOR How to Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps:

“This laugh-out-loud picture book can serve as a beginning reader. . . . The inevitable ending will delight both children and adults and this title will be requested over and over.” —STARRED REVIEW, Booklist

“Early-years students will love the humour and irony of the situation. Highly recommended.” —Resource Links

“As the chaos unfolds, viewers will be delighted to track the cat through the chase scenes. . . . There’s a wry humor in the unseen narrator’s directives, and the text makes a particularly amusing counterpart to the little girl’s visibly increasing frustration with the whole endeavor.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"[A] pleasing and well-executed story that really is the cat’s meow. An excellent choice for independent reading and sharing in small groups.” —School Library Journal

“Everyone will appreciate this delightful book.” —Imaginary Elevators

"Martz’s expressive art lays out the runaway circumstances through vignettelike passages and dialogue balloons, capturing the experience of well-laid plans quickly unraveling into disaster." —Publishers Weekly

“Adorably frustrating . . . will have young readers slapping their foreheads in exasperation, but will reward them with a sweet, funny ending . . . Martz’s colourful line drawings match the happy, manic energy.” —New York Times

“Delightfully entertaining.” —Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

Winter 2018

PreS-Gr 2–In this playful take on an instruction manual for kid cat owners, an unidentified narrator struggles to guide a pink-haired girl with pigtail buns on how to bathe her cat, Mr. Flea. Of course, what the narrator believes should be a simple, five-step task easily evolves into 10 increasingly complicated steps with humorous detours, like Mr. Flea going into hiding, milk and cookie breaks for the tired cat owner, and a soggy mess from an overflowing bathtub. The story's visual presentation is charming on many levels. Lots of negative space balances each spread, and helps highlight Martz's entertaining, digitally colored ink drawings. Plus, the thoughtful use of fonts serves as a valuable storytelling aid. For example, the narrator's businesslike personality is represented by easy-to-read, basic fonts, while the use of a handwritten font in stretchy speech bubbles gives voice to the pink-haired girl. These details result in a pleasing and well-executed story that really is the cat's meow. VERDICT An excellent choice for independent reading and sharing in small groups.—Phuong Vu, West Jordan Library, UT

School Library Journal

2018-09-30

A determined girl delivers a raucous manual on how to bathe a cat.

This step-by-step guide to bathing a cat is everything except boring. Whether it's filling the tub with too much (or not enough) water, upturning the house in search of a scaredy cat, or attempting to bribe the frightened feline with a delicious snack of milk and cookies, this rose-haired instructor is intent on teaching readers how to bathe her pet. After each attempt to demonstrate this hilarious lesson, the persistent instructor finds that either the water has gotten too cold or the bathwater has flooded the house or some other such calamity. After her five-step tutorial has turned into a 10-step failure, the young protagonist realizes that bathing a cat is achievable in one easy step: Cats can lick themselves clean. The illustrations are filled with action and humor. Each page is a bright yellow, and even when there is no text, the composition and the expressions of both cat and girl communicate volumes. The little girl has brown skin and pink hair in two pom-pom pigtails.

Fans of the popular How To series by Jean Reagan and Lee Wildish will enjoy this entertaining book—as will anyone who's ever known a cat. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews