Alya and the Three Cats by Amina Hachimi Alaoui is an adorable, little tale full of sweet kitties!

Minouche, Pasha and Amir are little cats who are treated like royalty. They have the best lives any cat could ever dream of! They're super cute and fluffy and full of personality, like all cats should be! Then, one day, their owner Myriam's belly begins to grow! Suddenly, there is a new friend for our litte fluff ball friends to meet.

I absolutely loved the art style. The pictures were drawn beautifully and attracted enough attention to them but didn't take away from the story. It stands out and is very lovely, plus the colours fit the tone and mood in the story.

Overall, this book is sweet and cozy! It's a great picture book for young readers.

Three out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and CrackBoom! Books for a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. ( )

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. ( )

Pasha, Minouche and Amir were the much-indulged feline companions of Maryam and Sami, and they were accustomed to plenty of love and attention. Then one day they began to notice that Maryam's belly - always a favorite place to nap - was getting bigger and bigger, and that it sometimes moved, and made funny sounds. When Maryam went away and returned with baby Alya, the cats weren't sure they liked this new development at first. But when they discovered that there was still plenty of love for them, they adopted Alya as their sister, keeping watch over her...

Originally published in Morocco in 2016, as علياء والقطط الثلاث, this sweet picture-book was translated into English in 2020, for the Montreal-based publisher, CrackBoom! Books. Although I have seen the translator listed in many databases as Mehdi Retnani, whose name is also on the colophon, the translator credited on the title page is Nathaniel Penn. I'm not sure which is correct - perhaps both? Leaving that aside, this was a delightful little book, one which addresses a common childhood experience - getting a new sibling - from a feline perspective. It reminded me a bit of similar tales told from the dog's perspective - Madeleine L'Engle's The Other Dog, Tony Fucile's Poor Louie - and was quite heartwarming. The accompanying artwork from Lebanese illustrator Maya Fidawi was colorful and cute, doing a particularly good job of capturing Pasha, Minouche and Amir's cuddly feline charm. Alya and the Three Cats is the first children's book I have read from Morocco - author Amina Hachimi Alaoui founded children's publishing house Yanbow Al Kitab in 2006 - but I hope it will not be my last. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for new sibling/new baby stories, as well as to young cat lovers. ( )