Recap THE RABBI'S CAT by Joann Sfar

The group discussion was small and meandering, much like a cat perhaps, but we found the book very intriguing and interesting. Overall we really liked the graphics especially the drawing of the "snarky, questioning feline". "Dead on" was one comment about the cat's depiction not only in general but also with the details and poses in some of the scenes. We discussed that this is soundly in the high school YA realm as the sexual content, political and religious themes were not appropriate for the general middle school reader. One may have a hard time defending the book on the middle school shelves than the high school shelves. On the flip side, the issues of identity: personal, political and religious were very rich and meaningful.

The only downside to the book was that we felt the descriptions of it were all a bit misleading. The cat only speaks in the first part of book, quickly losing his speech and remaining speechless for more of the book than not. So many descriptions of the book said it was about a cat who eats a parrot, learns to talk and wants have a bar mitzvah, but there is so much more to the book that this brief storyline.

Joann Sfar does have a line of graphic novels for the younger set. The series is known as the "Little Vampire". This may be a good alternative to middle school graphic novel collections that are trying to broaden out from just the Manga books.

Next month's selection: The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau