Katie the Catsitter

Much of the action revolving around the cats and their intelligence in these chapters is comedic. The cats work as a deus ex machina, where an improbable element steps in to neatly wrap things up. The cats also develop the novel’s ideas about animal rights. Katie is able to work so effectively with the cats because of the relationship she has established with them over the previous weeks. She has learned their names and specific abilities, and has built a level of mutual trust and respect that allows them to function as a team capable of breaking the Mousetress out of a heavily guarded prison. This working relationship between humans and animals is in stark contrast to the one Ms. Lang describes at the carriage horse mistreatment protest. It provides a model for what a healthy and positive, if exaggerated, dynamic between humans and animals could look like.

The final chapter reiterates how much Katie and Bethany have changed over the summer. Another postcard arrives from Bethany, but unlike before, Katie does not rush to open it. Instead, she opts to spend time with Marie, with whom her new interests and experiences are more closely aligned. Bethany’s postcard is devoid of the glitter and stickers that marked the girls’ closeness before, and reveals how much each girl has changed. For example, Bethany writes that the Eastern Screech showed up at camp for superhero day—“[he’s] really not that bad! Kinda cute almost” (204). At the beginning of the novel, Katie and Bethany are aligned in their dislike for the Eastern Screech, and Katie’s dislike has only grown stronger. Katie has learned to see through the artifice of his popularity and reputation, and knows that he is a fraud, while Bethany has simply gained an interest in boys (“kinda cute almost”). However, Bethany’s postcard is not unfriendly. This suggests that Katie and Bethany will remain friends, just not in the same way as before.

These final chapters complicate the novel’s depiction of wealth inequality. Up until now, the novel’s apparently wealthy figures, such as the Mousetress’s targets, are bad people. This links wealth with immorality. Additionally, the early chapters focus on Katie and her mom’s struggle with money, suggesting that it is immoral to amass extreme wealth in a world where poverty exists. In the final section, the revelation that Mr. B and Ms. Lang have lots of money reframes this reading. To a degree, it undercuts the novel’s critique of wealth inequality. The fact that Mr. B spent his billion dollars helping people suggests that there are good ways to make use of extreme wealth—especially when compared to the other examples of wealth in the text. Likewise, at the end of the novel, Ms. Lang hires Katie as her sidekick, provides her with unlimited free meals from her chain of vegan restaurants, and promises to make her a partner when she turns 18. This is another example of how wealthy people can be kind.

A potential critique is that the ending suggests a shallow and ineffective solution to inequity. Ms. Lang coming to Katie’s rescue implies that wealthy people are the answer to poverty. This would make poor people reliant on wealthy philanthropists, a solution that doesn’t address systemic issues such as unequal access to education and wages.