The Miss Meow Pageant, the fifth book from Toronto writer and storyteller Richardo Keens-Douglas, is the story of Henrietta’s cat, Sparrow, one of the ugliest cats in the feline world. Things change for Sparrow when Henrietta’s friend enters him in a beauty pageant. Once Sparrow hits the pageant stage and begins dancing to calypso music, he becomes almost magically beautiful, and the audience’s shouts of laughter quickly turn to cheers. The transformation is complete when Sparrow, seemingly out of nowhere, produces a kitten – he is in fact a she, and Sparrow is crowned the winner.

This unusual story is supported and enriched by Marie Lafrance’s funky artwork, which adds energy and interest. Children will enjoy rooting for Sparrow, the “undercat,” particularly in comparison with all the other cats. The book also highlights Keens-Douglas’s oral style of narrative and his knack for capturing accents, rhythms, and dialects in dialogue.

Keens-Douglas has not, unfortunately, fully translated this oral style into the written medium. The text may be too chatty and lengthy for silent readers, and contains many references (such as “Rastas”) that may need explanation. On one occasion, Keens-Douglas also slips his own voice into his character’s, causing her to act inconsistently: on one hand Henrietta denounces beauty pageants as “nonsense,” and on the other she races to sign Sparrow up after hearing the prizes. This confusing contradiction could have been avoided by leaving out the political statement. The story does succeed as a silly spoof of beauty pageants, and would be particularly effective as an animated read-aloud to a group.