Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is a fun book of true short stories about famous cats through the ages. It is entertaining for cat lovers of any age. It would be fun to use for bedtime stories or as a gift to a reluctant reader.

Heartwarming true stories accompanied by adorable and colorful pictures! If you aren't a cat person when you start this book, you will be by the end!

This was a nice easy fun read, I love cats and have two myself. This was a great fun read about Cat tales and great images

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However, all opinions are of my own.
I found some of the stories quite interesting and it was curious to find out just how rich cats can actually be! The perfect book for someone who loves their furry friend!

I love stories about cats and I loved this book. Great stories, lovely pictures and a lot of cats!
Perfect for cat lovers.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Cat Tales is an awesome, and mostly incredibly cute, collection of stories about special cats that have walked this earth. The book consists out of 4 chapters: Cats Throughout History, Cats with Jobs, Extraordinary Cats and Famous cats. Cat Tales has a total of 40, well, cat tales and each tale is about 3 pages with a beautiful illustration of the feline it's about.

I think this book is fun for young and old. I'm 21 years old and I still enjoyed it tremendously. I even looked up some of the cats because I was interested in reading more about them! And because the tales are so short, you can read them any time and anywhere! You can read the book in one sitting (like I did), one story every night before you go to bed, and even while you're waiting for someone.

It's not a long read, so I highly recommend that if you love cats, you read this book!

Princess Fuzzypants here: What is almost as good as having a fuzzy purr machine in your lap? Reading about fuzzy purr machines throughout history. This is an excellent book for the budding crazy cat lady or cat guy. It is filled with lots of stories, some from antiquity and others ripped out of the headlines or right off the feed in social media.

There are cats of whom we are all acquainted and there are some newbies, even though they lived a long, long time ago. They are hero cats, inspirational cats, working cats, loyal cats, and all sorts of amazing moggies. Their stories encompass both the famous and the common folk. But what they share is the amazing bond that we felines have chosen to have with you humans.

Unlike dogs, it was our choice. It is always our choice and we always choose you, not the other way around. But we decided that our interests were mutually beneficial and moved in. You humans are very lucky we did because I shudder to think where you might have been without kitty snoopervision.

Anyway, this is a sweet book, easy to read and enjoyable. I give it the full five purrs and two paws up.

Thank you so much for the chance to read this delightful book in exchange for honest feedback. I loved the illustrations, theme, and stories offered by this book. I am a cat lover so this was an instant request. I am glad to have read through it and would suggest it if I saw it in store or at a library :)

This was such a cute and short non fiction book!! I really loved the amount of depth we saw into each little kitties story. These cats were heros, morale boosters and sassy! These were some truly amazing and adorable cats! Everyone that says cats don't care about their owners need to read this!! (and everyone else because this was so damn wholesome)

My daughter really enjoyed this book about famous cats throughout the ages. She really loves cats and knowing these pets have played significant roles in history really appealed to her.

Yes to all the cats! This book is divided into 4 chapters (Cats Throughout History, Cats with Jobs, Extraordinary Cats, and Famous Cats) and each chapter contains around 10 famous felines. There is only so much you can say in 3 illustrated pages, but this book whet my appetite to learn more about the kitties featured in its pages.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to write an honest and sincere review.

This book reminds me of a similar book that was popular when I was a kid. It has short, interesting vignettes about famous cats throughout history, as well as some cats that have become popular through social media in the past few years. It would make an excellent read for a middle grade student who likes books about pets.

The stories are all very heart-warming, and brief. This helped to make it easier to read since I was able to read a story or two while I was taking a break. I think many kids would love to read a book like this that did not take them forever to read. If they did not finish the entire book, they would still enjoy the stories that they did get to finish, perhaps choosing to check it out again if they had borrowed it from the library.

The illustrations in this book are very cute, but it would be great to see pictures of the actual cats, if it were possible. The real-life pictures would be more engaging, and might encourage young readers to do some research on the cats in the book.

My Thoughts
I love cats! Here are my pros and cons for Cat Tales:
Pros
1. This book is filled with uplifting, hair-raising, and almost unbelievable stories about cats.
2. Each cat story (40 total) is only a couple of pages long, so you can read several at once, or maybe just one or two as a bedtime treat for children.
3. There are stories about famous cats, historical cats, cats with jobs, hero cats, and anonymous cats that did something awesome. You are probably aware of some cats (like Grumpy Cat) but I guarantee you haven’t heard about most of these awesome cats before. You will learn something!
4. Some of the stories might actually bring a tear to your eye. I may or may not have gotten emotional once or twice… I’ll never tell! 😊
5. The images by Isabel Munoz are delightful.
6. There is a section in the book about proper kitten and cat care as well as a section recommending additional reading if you want to learn more about some of the cats in the book.
7. This book is written for children ages 8 to 12 years old, but honestly, cat lovers of any age would enjoy this book.
Cons
None.
Summary
If you or someone you know loves cats, then this would be a great gift book for them! It is fun to read and you will learn something as well! You should really grab a copy today!
Thank you to NetGalley and Arcturus Publishing for an eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I received this book for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley #cattails

This book was so fun and friendly just like our furry friends. Definitely not a generic cat book. Five stars all around.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this! I think that it was so much fun and a very easy read. I felt that the stories were interesting and gripping and it was so easy just to keep reading. I loved the illustrations so much and loved how they added so much atmosphere to the book. If you or someone you love is a cat lover, I would definitely recommend this one!

Cat Tales: True Stories of Fantastic Felines by Penelope Rich is a sweet set of stories about cats across the ages.

This book made me smile and want to weep happy tears. Cats doing heroic acts, cats hanging at their beloved owner's graves, and famous cats being themselves are all featured in this book. It will make you smile and feel good, especially if you love cats. I did enjoy learning about many cats over the ages, as I had heard of a fair few of them but not all.

Children and adults will love this book. I waouldn't limit this book to one age group or another. It can easily be read by middle graders, especially with the cartoon-y illustrations throughout the book.

Three out of five stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Arcturus Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

A sweet little nonfiction for any lover of true stories and cats! There were a couple that I had heard of, even (Pwditat, Grumpy Cat, for example) It was interesting to hear about some jobs that cats have held or amazing feats they have accomplished. This is definitely one that I will suggest my 7 year old pick up too, because I know she'll love it.

As someone who loves cats and has their own (mine came into my room while I was reading this), I was very excited to read 'Cat Tales' - it definitely did not disappoint one bit! I love the art style and little doodles of cats that was included in each chapter, they made me very happy to see and made the book much more enjoyable.

The layout/formation of this book made it very easy to read and navigate through. There are four different chapters, and then sub-chapters that all link together. As this is how the layout goes, I will include each of the chapters in this review and my thoughts of them. I also wanted to mention how I enjoyed when the authors used rhetorical questions, like at the beginning of some of the chapters, as I was able to think more about my own cat and what she does (or what she doesn't do...) - although it sounds weird now that I write it, it just made the experience of reading this more enjoyable.

Chapter 1 - Cats Throughout History: This was a very informative chapter that teaches you a lot about cats from different countries and decades, whether it be their importance, their breeds and where they came from, or even awards that cats have, such as the Dickin Medal. However, the whole book by itself is informative. In the 4th Chapter, Famous Cats, under the sub-chapter Famous Film Felines (love that title!), I learned that Taiwan has a Cat Film Festival - that, and many other things, I didn't know before and came as a shock to me. On my way to my old house, I would always see a figure of a Maneki-Neko outside someone's house, and learning the meaning/message behind it in this book made it much more of a warming experience to look back on. Learning about other cats, such as Unsinkable Sam, was really heart-warming too.

Chapter 2 - Cats with Jobs: This was the most funniest and enjoyable chapter in the book. I often had to think, "Wait, is this actually true?" because of the way it was written. But this isn't a negative thing at all, because I would be laughing trying to figure out the reality - in this chapter, the cats are literally talked about as if they were humans, "drinking wine". Even when I first read the title of the chapter, I was really confused on what it meant, but reading further on it all made sense. There was also a lot of funny puns in it, such as Mr. No Ears being "catnapped". This was my favourite chapter of them all and I just love the way that it was written.

Chapter 3 - Extraordinary Cats: This is where I have to complain and ask, "Why would you put a funny chapter and a sad chapter next to each other?!" because despite the fact that this taught me just how amazing cats can be, it also made me really sad when I was reading just how much effort cats take to get back to their owners (I even got worried when my cat went missing for a week once when we moved into our new home, but she came back all safe, meowing at 3am and waking up everyone in the house.) The sub-chapter, 'Hero Cats', made me even sadder, like learning about Scarlett. Cats literally put one of their nine lives at risk, and that's something they should be awarded/praised on - this is definitely the most heart-warming chapter.

Chapter 4 - Famous Cats: This chapter was really interesting because it allowed me to learn more about the importance of cats, similar to the 1st chapter. I already knew about Grumpy Cat, but learning about Ernest Hemingway's and Karl Lagerfeld's cats made them much more special in a way. I will definitely be looking into reading more of Ernest Hemingway after this, as this book just made him seem so extraordinary despite not even talking about what he's most known for.

Overall, I really LOVED this book. I don't only recommend it to other cat lovers, but I also recommend it to people who might just want to learn more about them, or change their opinions on them (as this just made my love grow for them which I thought was impossible). Honestly, I just recommend it to anyone... Even if you don't like these types of books, there should be no fear into reading this because of how amusing it was.

This is a must-read for young (and old) cat-lovers. After an introduction explaining that cats are the most commonly kept pet in the world and that our close relationship with cats goes back thousands of years, the book is separated into five sections: Cats Throughout History; Cats with Jobs; Extraordinary Cats; Famous Cats; and caring for cats. Each section introduces the theme with interesting facts, then tells the real-life stories of between 9-11 cats. For example, the cat Tai Miuwette lived 3000 years ago and was so loved by the brother of the pharaoh that she got her own sarcophagus with hieroglyphs placing her with the gods. Then there was Trim, the cat of Captain Flinders born on a ship in 1799, who sailed around the world with many adventures, including falling overboard and being shipwrecked. In the working cats section, we learn the amazing and sad story of Felicette, the Soviet cat sent into space who returned by parachute (and who suffered a brain injury as a result). My favourite section was the ‘extraordinary cats’ chapter including Ryzhik who learned to walk on four titanium paws, and Felix who flew 288,100kms around the world in the hold of a plane, surviving by licking condensation. As an English teacher, I enjoyed the story about Hemmingway’s six-toed cats in the ‘Famous Cats’ chapter.

These short, independent, entertaining stories – many of which have lovely illustrations -- are ideal for the reluctant and struggling secondary school students I work with, and the book would also be popular in primary schools. We will be ordering multiple copies of the books when it is released in the UK in May.