Kitty Wrangler!The Pawed Piper by Michelle Robison

I wanted a cat to cuddle.

Now what do cats like?

Maybe grandma can help. She has a great tuxedo cat named Hector--who, grandma says, loves catnip, and cardboard boxes, and spreading out all over any newspaper in sight!

Our girl assembles lots of boxes and pots of catnip and stacks and stacks of old newspapers for her room... and leaves the window open to all kitty comers. At first, none appear, but in the middle of the night she discovers...

Something purry... furry... and cuddly...

It's Hector with hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats... (Wait! That's another story, but there were lots of them!)

67, exactly!

All kinds of cats fill her bedroom--fat cats, tiny tiger cats, spotted and striped cats, happy cats and grumpy cats... including one that secretes herself in the sock drawer. It's a CATegorically amazing day, but when she tries to take Hector home that afternoon, it's like, well, herding cats,--until she's stopped in her tracks when she spots all the missing cat posters (hundreds and millions and billions... and, well, you know!) on a wall. She has to take all the cats back to their homes, and at last, with tired feet and a heavy heart, she heads back home, still cat-less!

I'd forgotten all about the cat
in my sock drawer. She'd been so quiet.

And now I knew why!

Now she has a family of kittens, and when it is time for each of them to have new homes, there's one kitten who stays to cuddle... forever!

Recalling Wanda Gag's classic Caldecott-winner, Millions of Cats (Picture Puffin Books) Michelle Robinson's new The Pawed Piper (Candlewick Press, 2019) shows that there's the right cat for everyone somewhere. Robinson's cat tale is a thoughtful, quiet one of how to find the right cat... or giving the right cat a chance to find you. Chinlun Lee's pastel illustrations use soft watercolors in all the hues of cats who cuddle and purr and snuggle... and come home to stay.