This book is exactly what you want it to be. It has cats. It has cute cats. It has cute cats doing awesome things all while being accompanied by haiku poetry. It is a dream come true for a lot of English teachers. For this newest Volume, Mark Poulton and Dexter Weeks feature a lot of different writers. Mark Poulton, Pat Shand, Ryan K. Lindsay, and Ann Nocenti to name a few. Each writer takes on the difficult task of haiku and creates a poem with cats as their theme. It is rather genius, if you ask me. The book is set up with a full story of this cat, some from his perspective and some from the owner’s perspective. This makes for a wide range of fun. Starting to read this comic, a feeling comes over you. You know those comics that make you feel all warm and fuzzy, well that is what Furrever Friends will do to you. There are so many great stories being told in just three lines. But what is so cool is that any pet owner can relate to these stories. The book goes through the cute stages of a cat and the angry ones... but like I always say, with that face how can you get mad even though he did just scratch my new couch and left one claw in the fabric while looking back at me like “what did I do?” These silly moments are captured on every page.
Then the comic rolls back to those precious moments of pouncing on a laser light, spending Christmas morning together, and so on. Some of my favorite moments in the book involve cat kung-fu, flying hero cats, kitten paws in your mouth, and cats chasing after bugs. Sounds pretty epic to me and sounds like what I go through on a daily basis. Although I think they forgot the moments when I show up to work with cat fur all over me!
What follows each haiku is a picture to accompany the poem. Mark Poulton, Dane Cypel, and Dexter Weeks help to put together this great art pieces. Using the same cat throughout the book helps to create a story with these mini stories. It is a great idea. Plus, Haiku, the cat, is freaking adorable. You can’t go wrong with an orange tabby cat, but the way that they capture the cat’s attitude with every picture makes it that much better. Especially when the cat is pawing the human’s mouth and looking at its audience like “I’m a jerk but cute at the same time.” These little faces show how much work was actually put into creating Haiku.
All in all, this book is a fun read. It would be a good children's book to read with the kids and also a good coffee table book that your other cat lover friends could rifle through. On top of all this coolness, the profits for the book are going to be donated to a no kill animal rescue in New Jersey. It is clearly a win-win for you and our furry friends. So please ask your local comic book shop for it, and I promise that you will fall in love cats all over again, or become increasingly obsessed with cats more than you even thought possible.
Score: 4/5
Furrever Friends: A Cat Named Haiku Writer: Various Artist: Mark Poulton, Dane Cypel, & Dexter Weeks Publisher: Arcana Studios Price: $9.95 Release Date: 10/28/15 Format: Anthology, Print