CRITICAL PRAISE FOR THE BIG CATNIP:

"PERFECTLY PITCHED...A FREE-FOR-ALL OF COMEDIC CATTY TOUCHES...DON'T OVERLOOK THIS AS A SNAPPY READALOUD, TOO, ESPECIALLY IF YOU CAN MUSTER A PASSABLE IMITATION OF BOGART..." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (University of Illinois)

"SAM'S DEADPAN HUMOR AND OBSERVATIONS ARE RIGHT ON TARGET.... YOUNG READERS WILL ENJOY MATCHING WITS WITH THIS CLEVER CAT." - Foreword Magazine

"ENGAGING... FAST-PACED, FUNNY... RECOMMENDED FOR PRE-TEENS BUT ITS APPEAL DEFINITELY DEFIES AGE." - Cats Magazine

"WONDERFUL READ-ALOUDS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.... THE LAUGHS START ON THE FIRST PAGE." - Bookweb (American Booksellers Association)

"MANHATTAN'S ONLY CAT PRIVATE EYE TANGLES WITH THE EGOS OF THE TELEVISION WORLD." - Featured on the Kids Bookshelf, Cat Fancy Magazine

"A CUTE SPOOF ON HARDBOILED DETECTIVE STORIES." - Homeschooling Today

She was dazzling, all right -- a real heart-stopping beauty with a long fluffy tail -- and I stood looking back at her like salmon looks at bait. After a while I got the fish-look off my face and said, "To start with, what's your name?"  

"Antoinette," she said primly. "It's my stage name, of course."  

"You're an actress?"  

"Not yet. I take classes at The Cat Actors Studio," she said, "but at the moment I'm a model. You might have seen my picture in the carpet-cleaner ad or for Snag-Pruf Pantyhose or Dr. Katz's Soap?"  

"I must've missed that," I mumbled.  

"That's impossible," she said. "I get asked for my paw-tograph everywhere I go."