Saved By an Evil Cat: Happy Birthday Bad Kitty

I picked up Nick Bruel's Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty because I vaguely remember my sixth grader getting a Bad Kitty book for the second grader for Christmas.  And the book fair was at the second grader's school, so that justified the purchase of another book.  Then I forgot about it and it rode around in the car for a few weeks when it was time for an emergency dinner at McDonald's for me, the sixth grader and the second grader.

Now, those two boys have been clashing a bit lately.  In that the second grader falls about screaming if X breathes his air, watches his TV, speaks above a whisper, exists in comfort, whatever.  X usually bears this in patience for about thirty seconds, then starts screaming back.  So clearly the meal had few chances of success.  But I saw the book, grabbed it, plonked myself between the kids at our booth, and started reading aloud.

Both kids loved it.  The only screaming came when I went to fill my drink.  We almost finished by the time we had to move on to our next event, and it was then that I noticed that N had eaten about two bites of food -- he had been too busy cheering on Bad Kitty, commenting on the birthday guests, helping me read parts of the story, having a great time and not complaining about X's evil eyeballs battering his space or something.  Bruel and his Bad Kitty saved me from a bad evening with bad boys, so thanks!  A