Common Sense Media Review
By Regan McMahon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Highly original, very visual tale of cat vs. tiny aliens.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
A curious house cat named Mr. Wuffles finds what looks like a small toy spaceship on the floor and begins to play with it and then falls asleep. What the reader sees, in comics-like panels, is that the \"toy\" is an actual spaceship full of tiny green aliens, whom the cat jostled when he was batting it around. He's disabled their ship, which they need to fix to get home. They leave the ship with some of their equipment, and Mr. Wuffles wakes up and chases them across the floor into an opening under the radiator. There, they find ant-like insects their size who help them get back home.
Is It Any Good?
MR. WUFFLES is an incredibly original picture book that takes a graphic-novel approach to storytelling, mixing action-packed panels with more traditional, full-page illustrations of a cat-and-mouse (actually, cat-and-aliens) game. The twist is that the aliens find friendly insects (who are also afraid of cats, judging from the wall drawings in their secret hiding place) to help them escape -- but not before posing together for some alien home movies.
There's much to look at in the colorful, detailed panels, and it's fascinating to see the ants and aliens communicate with each other in each one's own language, expressed in thought balloons with words not of our alphabet (the alien language looks like hieroglyphics; the ant one looks like little scratches). Readers can figure out what they're saying, but it can be challenging -- which also makes for layers of discovery upon multiple readings. Simply ingenious!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about aliens from outer space. How do the ones in Mr. Wuffles compare with other aliens you've seen in books or movies? What's different about these?
Do you think there's life on other planets? What would you do if you saw an alien on Earth?
Do you think Mr. Wuffles acts like a real cat? What cat behavior does the author show in the pictures?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : David Wiesner
- Genre : Picture Book
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , Animals
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Clarion Books
- Publication date : October 1, 2013
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 4 - 8
- Number of pages : 32
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Awards : ALA Best and Notable Books , Caldecott Medal and Honors
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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