Princess Puffybottom has a perfect cat’s life. She rules her household while her subjects—the two human women who live with her—take care of her every need. When her world is shaken by the “horrible” and “disgusting” puppy brought home by the human couple of the house, she assumes he will soon be banished. She waits and waits—but he doesn’t leave. Eventually, she takes action, trying tricks, sabotage, and even hypnosis (staring at her humans) to get him cast out. Nothing works.
After a while, though, she realizes there could be benefits to having a devoted subject who worships her. She comes to tolerate him “most of the time.” On the final page, we see them curled on the sofa together as the book concludes, “At least her subjects wouldn’t be bringing home any more surprises”—but as we read this, we see on the opposite page that the two-woman couple (one Black, one Asian) is walking in the door carrying a baby. It’s a deftly done “show me, don’t tell me” moment. Mueller has kept the focus of the images at cat’s-eye level until this last spread, so that until then, we never see any of the human faces and are tempted not to pay much attention to the people. One could go back through the book, however, and spot clues to what’s happening—one woman has her hand on what we now realize is a pregnant belly; a party scene is now read as a baby shower—but Mueller throws readers off the scent until the big reveal.
This is a terrific book for any child expecting a new sibling. The analogy of Darryl coming into the house is clear—but the human baby at the end reinforces the parallel, adds a fun twist, and makes it obvious the creators aren’t trying to avoid showing a same-sex couple with a real child by substituting animals.
Notably, too, the couple in the book could have easily been a different-sex couple without changing a word of the text. Nielsen told Kirkus in an interview, though, “I knew from the very beginning that the pets’ parents would be two women. But I wanted to represent them in a very quiet way. I didn’t want their relationship to be the story; I just wanted it to be.” Kudos to her for that. We LGBTQ people are more than just our LGBTQ identities, and our books should reflect that.
This is also just a great story for animal lovers. Princess Puffybottom is imperious and personable (and her name is awesome); Darryl is all energy and enthusiasm. Princess Puffybottom’s two teeny fangs are both an adorable touch and a sign that she’s more than just a gorgeous ball of fur—she’s also a warrior princess. Bonus points to the publisher, too, for using photos of Nielsen and Mueller’s cats in lieu of the usual author/illustrator photos on the back flap and writing their bios through the cats’ eyes. The humans’ deep love of cats shines through every page.
