Fabulous Long Tail Kitty review in PW

Long Tail Kitty just got a great review in Publishers Weekly!

Long Tail Kitty Lark Pien. Blue Apple (Chronicle, dist.), $14.99 (64p) ISBN 978-1-934706-44-2

Newcomer Pien's aptly named protagonist, who debuted in comics Pien created starting in 2001, now appears in a full-color collection of five original stories, rich in friendly, blissfully unironic conversations. Mischievous but goodhearted Long Tail Kitty ice-skates with his new friend Good Tall Mouse, fixes supper with said mouse as well as Bernice the dog and has a playdate with some friendly aliens. By the time readers hit the foldout page with nearly 70 fun games Long Tail Kitty has planned to do with the aliens—which range from “Office Jobs!” to “Crazy Tornado!”—they'll be converts. The panels are resolutely low-tech; Long Tail Kitty and friends are drawn with a few deft brushstrokes, while watercolors soften but draw little attention to themselves. Pien embraces ideals of compassion but doesn't hit readers over the head with them. After a bee stings him, Long Tail Kitty bridles at the bee's request to return his stinger, but when he imagines life without his own tail (“There would be nothing to keep my stripe up! My bellybutton would show!”), he relents. More, please! Ages 4–up. (Nov.)