“Isis was one of 1500 gods and goddesses worshipped by the ancient Egyptians. My Isis is the one and only cat in our family.” A boy’s clever comparison of the Egyptian goddess and his family cat who shares the same name constitutes the narrative of a picture book full of laugh-out-loud humor and brimming with feeling. The goddess Isis ruled over the hour of two o’clock in the afternoon. The cat Isis “is usually sleeping at two o’clock in the afternoon.” The goddess Isis guarded the living and the dead. The cat Isis guards the seeds in the bird feeder. The goddess received gifts of “food, flowers and trinkets.” The cat can count a wind-up mouse among its offerings. Facts about the Egyptian goddess unfold through the comparisons, but the heart of the story is in the humor and in the obvious love the boy feels for his pet—she may not be “Ruler in Heaven and Queen on Earth,” but she clearly rules the heart of her young owner. Catherine Austen’s witty, warm picture book is accompanied by Virginie Egger’s striking collage illustrations pairing art in the style of classical Egypt with multimedia collage images portraying the feline Isis and her immediate world. (Ages 4–8)

Striking collage illustrations bring to life a boy's comparisons of his beloved cat to Isis, goddess of Egyptian myth.

The goddess Isis was the revered daughter of the earth and sky. The cat Isis is a family pet who is just as special.

This dazzling work of paper- and photo-collage, painting and pen-and-ink illustration is both an homage to a beloved feline and a journey into the realm of Ancient Egyptian myth and the goddess Isis. Through a series of lighthearted comparisons between his cat and its goddess namesake, the boy narrator reveals both similarities and differences between the two worlds. An ideal book for pet lovers and lovers of ancient history alike!