Kittens do not care for baths is an ideal book for young children who love playing pretend and have that special relationship with their toys. This book is also an Early Childhood Notable in the 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards.
The story follows a young girl, Maya, as she pretends to be a kitten at her home. Her dad tries to coax her into a bath at the end of the day. Maya eventually agrees, especially after realising her toy tiger needs a bath, too!
Both my three and six-year-olds enjoyed reading this story and could relate to the imaginative play of Maya as she scampered around in the back garden. Dressed in pointy ears and a swishy tail, Maya climbs trees, pounces like a kitten, plays with bubbles and enjoys a warm saucer of milk. I think the highlight of the story for my three-year-old, was Maya’s realisation that she had forgotten her toy tiger out in the backyard. She races outside to find him lying in a muddy puddle. Time to get cleaned up together!
There are a maximum of three to four sentences per page, making it a good option for reading-age children. There are a number of challenging words they can add to their vocabulary, such as ‘prowled’, ‘signs’, ‘busy’ and ‘climbers’.
Spoiler: Maya goes from not wanting to get into the bath, to wanting to stay in the bath ‘FOREVER’. So, it has got some The Pigeon Needs a Bath vibes, which isn’t a bad thing!
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