As a reminder, I am reviewing one book each day until Christmas, in no particular order.
Each choice is special in its own way. All would make great gifts for your cat addicted book lovers. Or your book addicted cat lovers.
Why cat books? Several reasons, really. I adore cats. Cats appear in most of my fiction. And I enjoy promoting cat books for the holidays, because I frequently give or get them as gifts myself. And finally, so many people have a cat, that cat themed gifts are an industry. You can’t go wrong.
Today I am reviewing “Lil Bub’s Lil Book,” by Lil Bub.
With Lil Bub, we are back to internet cats, but they capture the imagination, and few more than Lil Bub. Lil Bub rocketed to fame after kitten pictures of her went viral in 2011. She passed away a little over a year ago in December 2019. That’s not long for some cats, but pretty good for a cat with her medical problems, including dwarfism, osteopetrosis, and an aggressive bone infection in her last year of life.
Lil Bub was famous because she was cute. With her shortened jaw, her tongue stuck out and with her dwarfism, she stayed the size of a kitten. But that cuteness brought a lot of joy to her followers and her fame helped owner Mike Bridavsky donate money to animal rescue groups.
This adorable book that came out in 2013 helped with that. The purported backstory for Bub was that she is from space and came here to be the most amazing cat on the planet. The photos in the book depict her story with adorable staged and candid photos and cute captions.
Bub is shown in her “space pod” with a control board. She lands on earth “in search of fishes,” but finds her Dude (Bridavsky) instead. Sweet closeups show her “telepathically signing autographs,” “visiting your dreams,” “winning a staring contest with time,” and “winning a staring contest with you.” With her giant round eyes in her unique face frozen on the page, that’s certainly true.
Other sequences show her perched next to the pyramids noting her family built them, and hanging out at a tiny Stonehenge. We also get a bath sequence. Bub famously needed frequent baths because her eating difficulties had her wearing a lot of her food.
The book features some fun guest appearances from other internet cats, including Smoosh, Henri, le Chat Noir (whose book I reviewed a couple of days ago), and Colonel Meow, a Himalayan-Persian crossbreed with a unique scowling expression who was briefly famous around the release of this book. Internet cat lovers will thoroughly enjoy those photos.
The book opens with her story and her Dude’s story, and it closes with quite a few pieces of fan art of Lil Bub. Many people were taken with her appearance and she’s been depicted in a variety of ways.
Overall, this book is going to appeal to children who love cats and cute animals. Lil Bub couldn’t get any cuter, and many of these photos are priceless. It’s also a collector’s item for Lil Bub fans, especially now that she’s gone. Definitely pick it up if you know someone in either category.
