It seems as though all of my friends have new kittens and want to torture me by constantly posting pictures, resulting in a serious case of kitten envy. For various reasons (#1 being my neurotic adult cat), introducing a kitten to my life is not the best plan at the moment, so I'm contenting myself — for now — with a few kitty-centric books.

On the cute-overload side...

I Knead My Mommy and Other Poems by Kittens by Francesco Marciuliano (Chronicle, August 2014)
The latest in Marciuliano's series of pet-perspective poetry books (I Could Chew on This, I Could Pee on This) features a kitten's-eye view of the world. Although the brief poems admittedly aren't great literature, they are frequently funny or touching; one of my favorites is "Not Goodbye":

I still smell the older cat
On his favorite chair
On his favorite blanket
On his favorite toy
On me
I still smell the older cat
But I can't find him anywhere
And now his dish is gone
And now his bed is gone
And now you are crying
But I still smell the older cat
So tomorrow I will look again

The poems are accompanied by many super-cute (stock) photos of kittens in all their fuzzy, bobble-headed glory. A good gift book for the crazy cat person on your list.

The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee: The Ultimate Guide to All Things Kitten by Laurie Cinotto (Roaring Brook, March 2014)
Part photo album, part how-to book, this paperback inspired by "kitten wrangler" Cinotto's blog of the same name introduces several dozen of her previous foster cats as well as basic kitten care and the responsibilities kitten-fostering entails. Instructions for DIY kitten accoutrements, an advice column "written by" adult cat Charlene, comics created with photos and speech bubbles, kid-oriented tips on keeping kittens happy and healthy, and suggestions for helping shelter cats round out this offering. The kitty pics are definitely the main attraction, though; just try not to squee at this one.

 

On the bizarre-but-kinda-awesome end of the spectrum...

Downton Tabby: A Parody by Chris Kelly (Simon & Schuster, December 2013)
Cats make a weirdly appropriate (re)cast for the Edwardian-era BBC drama about an entitled family and their servants: "A Code of Conduct for Cats and Gentlefolk" offers advice such as "Never do anything for yourself that someone else can do for you," "Communicate disapproval [and affection] with a withering glare," and "Loaf in a decorative and highly charming manner." This is a strange and not entirely successful little volume, but the well-dressed hairless cat as the acerbic "Dowager Catness" is pretty spot-on. (Another gem: a diagram of a formal place setting indicating the "mouse fork," "vole fork," etc.)

Pre-Raphaelite Cats by Susan Herbert (Thames & Hudson, May 2014)

Possibly even stranger (/cooler) is this collection of cat-ified Pre-Raphaelite portraits. Thirty works by Pre-Raphaelite founders Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais and their followers are reimagined with a variety of anthropomorphized kitty subjects. Some highlights: homages to Rossetti's Beata Beatrix, John William Waterhouse's Ophelia, and Edward Burne-Jones's The Golden Stairs. Each painting on the recto is accompanied by a few lines of contextual information or a short quotation on the verso; about half the versos include spot line-art of the featured felines. Black-and-white thumbnail reproductions of the original art are appended.