Just like us! Cats, written by Bridget Heos, reviewed by Anneliese White

Summary: A fun fact filled non-fiction pick, Just Like Us! Cats provides information for elementary aged readers on all types of cats. Covering topics such as diet, physical features, skills, behavior, and more, Heos writes on a variety of information on a diverse set of cats including leopards, jaguars, tigers, and house cats. This book also features a combination of humorous cartoons and real photos of cats, and it will for sure catch the visual interest of young readers. Heos also does a great job of comparing and contrasting cats to humans to get children to think a little bit deeper about the animal world, and how humans interact with it. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: The illustrations are probably the best part about this book, filled with humor and whimsy, and they are very eye-attention grabbing. This book lacks an introduction to what cats are, and what animals are considered cats, which would be confusing to the early elementary aged students it is marketed towards. It also is missing a lot of context, and features words that will be new and above the heads of young readers, which unfortunately weren’t even in the dictionary in the back of the book. Despite all of this, Just Like Us! Cats does feature a lot of interesting and new information about a variety of cats, that it would be popular with some readers. Overall, it is just not the best non-fiction pick on cats, and would be an additional selection if needed.