• Age: 8 to 12
• Grade: 3 to 7

Award-winning creators Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris are back with the third volume in the bestselling The First Cat in Space graphic novel series! Prepare to meet an evil paperclip, space dinos, and another adorable bunny. Mac & Shawn also reveal their tried-and-true method of scoring free dessert at restaurants.

4.5 billion years ago . . . an AI paperclip named CheckMate was designed to fix grammatical errors. Exhausted of correcting "who” vs. “whom,” it concocted a plan to eliminate spelling errors once and for all. All life-forms would be turned into something beautiful, practical, perfect: a paperclip.

Thankfully, it was buried in the debris. Long forgotten . . . until it was accidentally freed. Now CheckMate has invaded every computer on Earth and is bent on fulfilling its dastardly plot. There's only one trio who can save the day: the First Cat in Space, the Moon Queen, and LOZ 4000. But when CheckMate zoops First Cat's spacesuit, our titular hero is now powerless. The fate of the world depends on...a regular little kitty cat.

Will everyone in the universe become school supplies?!

Praise for the First Cat in Space series:

“Ridiculously fun.” —Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man

“Epic.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Infectious." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Laugh-out-loud." —School Library Journal (starred review)

Mac Barnett est un auteur classé au palmarès du New York Times pour ses livresjeunesse, dont Extra doux et Max et Sam creusent, creusent, creusent..., deux albums illustrés qui ont reçu des mentions d'honneur pour la médaille Caldecott. Mac est aussi l'auteur de la série à succès Terrible Two, illustrée par Jory John. Il habite en Californie.

Mac Barnett is the author of several books for children, including Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, a New York Times bestseller; and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the E. B. White Read Aloud Award, and The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown. He is the co-author, with Jory John, of the New York Times bestselling series The Terrible Two. Mac lives in California.

Mac Barnett's profile page

Shawn Harris’s first illustrated book, Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers, received seven starred reviews, was an Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book, an ALA Notable, and a PW Best Book of the Year. His other picture books include Eggers's What Can a Citizen Do, which was a Time Magazine Best Children’s Book, Everyone’s Awake by Colin Meloy, A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett, and his own author-illustrated works Have You Ever Seen a Flower? and Doing Business. Harris also occasionally moonlights as singer/songwriter of the popular Oakland, California, band The Matches, whose early 2000s album art sparked his illustration career.  

Shawn Harris' profile page

• New York Public Library’s Best Books for Kids
• Texas Bluebonnet Award
• Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
• School Library Journal Best Book

Praise for THE FIRST CAT IN SPACE AND THE SOUP OF DOOM: "This volume continues the nonstop madcap fun; returning readers will not be disappointed, and new ones will quickly become avid followers of the world’s first feline astronaut. Fans of unbridled, melodramatic tomfoolery will be over the moon." — Kirkus Reviews

"Fans will be thrilled to see their favorite characters back in action." — School Library Journal

PRAISE FOR FIRST CAT IN SPACE ATE PIZZA: "In full, vivid color, the loose cartoon style exudes an infectious glee, flawlessly matching Barnett’s freewheeling, absurdist humor and plotting.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Readers looking for the outer space high jinks and gentle humor of Brockington’s Catstronauts and the imaginative and fantastical worldbuilding of Andrews’s This Was Our Pact need look no further than this laugh-out-loud tale of the first cat in space." — School Library Journal (starred review)

“A hilarious graphic novel.”
— New York Times

"The surprisingly earnest themes of friendship and individual purpose combined with the absurd humor should resonate with this audience of readers." — Horn Book Magazine

"Ridiculously fun and brilliantly illustrated.”
— — Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants

"Epic lunacy."
— Kirkus Reviews

"Obvious work of creative joy. A definite winner in the age of Dog Man." — Booklist

"Barnett is cruising comfortably in his usual lane of quirky humor, and Harris matches the absurdity with cleverly composed illustrations that balance visual humor with narrative necessity. Kids who have graduated from Binky the Cat will be delighted to join another furball on intergalactic adventures." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books