Cats in Construction Hats (Cats in Hats) by Leeza Hernandez, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Published by Random House on April 8, 2025
ISBN: 0593706846
Genres: Animals, Vehicles
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads

Reminiscent of both  Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Richard Scarry books.  Cats in Construction Hats features colorful cats in colorful hard hats building a cat house. “Yellow cat. Green hat. Dig this. Clear that. Green cat. Orange hat. Mix this. Pour that.” Every four lines is a rhythmic, rhyming quatrain ending with “at”. Except when their carelessness results in a spectacular accident, “BOOM! CRASH! SPLAT!” and an exclamation,“RATS!”. Personally, I am not a big fan of rats but observant readers will be able to spot them on every page. (Cats and rats getting along and working together.) They will also delight in seeing bulldozer, dump truck, cement mixer, forklift, and hydraulic crane. This book could be used for story time but probably a better lap book. Overall, it is a bouncy, fun book that preschoolers will have fun scrutinizing and discussing the illustrations. I imagine an extension sorting activity where children match the cats to their colorful construction hats, perhaps placing them in a cubicle in the cat house. By the way, I love the plentiful scratching posts incorporated in the house design. (A feature I missed until about the fourth reading. This is why this book needs to be read again and again! I started out giving it 3 stars and then went back and changed my rating to 4 stars as I recognized its genius!)

Book 2 – Cats in Conductor Hats: A Train Adventure is schedule to be published in June, 2026.

Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library