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Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
“In Italia, you will smell and taste fantastic food, hear beautiful music, and see high rocky mountains and clear blue seas. You will meet many friendly, energetic people.” Those were Mother Cat’s sage words to her three young kittens. Fortuna took those words seriously, determined to explore as much of Italy as she could once she left Mother Cat’s protection. And she did, but Fortuna also discovered that being a black cat was not a welcome sight to many of these “friendly, energetic people” and it took her a while to find her purr-fect, fur-ever family. During her journey of discovery, Fortuna learned a lot about people, the wonderful sights, smells, and sounds of Italy, and about the many different types of people, like bakers, butchers, fishermen, farmers, and more. She also learned to communicate with humans, using both English and Italian in her storytelling. You see, Fortuna was an avid storyteller.
Katy Sloop Roberts’s early chapter book, Fortuna Finds a Family, is the prequel to the Luna and Fortuna series. Told in the first person from Fortuna’s point of view, the plot follows the black kitten from the day she was born underneath the butcher’s shop to the adventures she encounters as she searches the Italian countryside for "la famiglia perfetta" Mother Cat promised she’d have. The colorful illustrations add a visual element to the story and help make the cats and the world around them real and full of life. The characters are well-developed and the story is told with a tender sweetness that will melt readers’ hearts, making them all long for a darling black cat of their own to tell them stories. The story is both entertaining and educational; readers will learn about cats, the myths surrounding black cats, interesting details about life in Italy, and even some Italian vocabulary. Overall, an enjoyable read.
