This is War (Cats vs. Robots #1)

Cats VS. Robots is fantastic. So much fun to read, also deeply touching, super smart and crucial to understanding our identity as humans. Everyone needs to read it. And the illustrations are out of this world great!

Because of this book, I will never ever let my child check out a book from the library again without googling it first. My son gobbled this book up –and he rarely reads and usually only when motivated by Book-it or the Six Flags Read to Succeed program. Getting my boys to read is nearly impossible. So when my 9 year old son finished this book quickly, saying how much he LOVED it and couldn\’t wait for the second one, I was thrilled. I told him we should let the author know and ask when book #2 would be available. Then I found a couple of reviews that stopped me in my tracks. Chapter 9 does indeed deal with gender identity and how it is ok not to claim one. If you as a parent have issue with having that kind of a conversation with your young son, then I highly recommend not allowing them to read this without guided conversation. We teach that gender is ordained by God, and to have it ferreted into a book about cats and robots, frankly makes me angry. How is it religious conversations are taboo and require warning labels but this kind of issue has no warning whatsoever? For children? Now that I know this is content I will need to look out for in children\’s books I will exercise due diligence in the future. I\’m just mad at myself that I didn\’t do that before he read this one.

Hilarious book, my whole family has loved it.

Chapter 9 introduces the main characters nonbinary cousin. There\’s an entire page and a half of how a conversation between someone who doesn\’t understand what being nonbinary means and someone who is nonbinary in the gender context. There are many different ways to discuss binary and nonbinary. Gender didn\’t have to be brought into it. Heck, they even brought up BATHROOMS. It\’s too touchy of a topic and we had no idea this was a conversation our EIGHT year old would be hearing.

Thank goodness I was doing this as a read aloud with my 10 year old. He reads a ton of books independently, but this was one I chose from the library to read together a chapter a night. It was on the new shelf, had two of his interests: cats and robots, so I thought why not. First off, it starts pretty slow. Alternating between the cat and robot planets and Introducing a ton of characters that you (or at least my 31 year old heavily pregnant self) can’t remember once you move on to the earth chapters. We made it to earth and my son and I both started enjoying the book more. And then the controversial chapter came. Chapter 9 I believe. I read aloud that “cousin Javi was nonbinary” before I realized where exactly that statement was headed. While my 10 year old rambled on about binary code (totally not getting the intended implications of the statement) I skipped ahead past the lengthy, pages long explanation of what it means to be nonbinary. Not a discussion I want to have right now especially when trying to get to bed on time for school. Even skipping ahead the rest of the chapter went on about chosen pronouns. My son just took it as a quirk that Javi prefers to be called they/them. Much to the author’s dismay I’m sure, he is still totally in the dark on what it means to be nonbinary. This content adds nothing to the story and I’m not sure how it made it past an editor’s desk. It is not something I expected to encounter in a book about cats and robots at war.

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