The Thirteenth Cat written by Mary Downing Hahn, reviewed by Rebecca Lowe

Summary: Twelve year old Zoey is excited to spend the summer with her Aunt Alice in her beautiful new house next to the overgrown forest. She quickly makes friends with local girl Lila and both girls become convinced that the mean neighbor Miss Dupree is a witch. Miss Dupree has bunches of mean cats as well but one sweet and friendly kitten. When Zoey sees the kitten being bullied by the other cats and sees how malnourished it is, she becomes determined to rescue it and keep it. But Miss Dupree is not about to let the cat go. Using her witchly powers, she turns Zoey and Lila into cats! Now Zoey and Lila must figure out how to outsmart the witch and the other cats to return to human before they lose their human memories. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: Books by Mary Downing Hahn are generally a popular choice in upper elementary school and lower middle school for horror fans. Fans of Erin Hunter's warrior cat books will also love this story, especially the parts where Zoey and Lila navigate being cats. 

Miss Dupree makes her money as a fashion designer. She uses her magic to transform the cats into girls at night, forcing them to work in a sweat shop creating the designs (which themselves are stolen from one of the other cat-girls). As such, educators could tie in lessons about sweat shops and the fashion industry.