With TJ and the Cats, author and illustrator Hazel Hutchins has penned a quirky, informative, and funny early chapter book that will appeal to a wide range of readers. TJ, a young ailurophobe (someone who hates or is afraid of cats), just can’t say no when his beloved Grandma needs a pet-sitter for her four cats: Killer, Cleo, Max, and Kink. Once his charges arrive, TJ realizes that knowledge is his best defense and convinces his best friend and project partner Seymour to do their school science report on cats instead of on dinosaurs as planned. Learning about felines makes them less frightening to TJ – he now knows that Killer’s eyes gleam in the dark because of their physiology rather than any demonic intentions – and by the end he gets two kittens of his own.

Hutchins uses the boys’ research to insert all sorts of cat facts into the narrative, making for reading that is enlightening as well as entertaining.The cats’ hijinks provide the central action in the novel, but Hutchins has also created complex human characters that make the story believable and humorous; the dinosaur-obsessed, highly strung Seymour in particular steals many scenes. Hutchins makes the book more than a lighthearted “boy against beast” story with
a subplot about TJ’s loneliness at home – his parents own a successful hardware store and have little time to spend with him or each other. The cats’ presence allows the family to resolve this problem in a realistic and satisfying manner. Charmingly written and genuinely funny in a gentle, sophisticated way, this is a delightful short novel for readers ages 7 to 11.