Take It Away, Tommy is the third book reprinting the "Breaking Cat News" comic strips. This book opens with the cat reporters' human couple out on a date night, so the woman's sister is caring for the kids and cats. Only Lupin is participating in the pretend party. He looks dashing in a fez.

We're introduced to new supporting characters: Burt, a barn cat from Quinn Farms. The dark ginger tabby prefers audio-visual and tech support to reporting. Puck thinks he's handsome. Lupin is straining to hold Elvis' tie because the Siamese is upset that Burt is in their backyard, walking along the curving stone wall there. Thanks to Burt taking cat about town correspondent Tommy to see the Quinn Farms bar, we also meet a 26-year-old Russian Blue cat who has had over 90 kittens: Baba Mouse. (Baba Mouse is sweeping and tells Natasha and Violet of the robber mice to scat.).

Burt is almost immediately roped in to link the various broadcasts. This gives us an excuse to see Tabitha and Sir Figaro Newton of the Gatos de Noticias team that lives on the third floor of the Big Pink House and also frequent the laundry room. They are the "ceiling cats" to the reporters of the second floor apartment. Tabitha and Sir Figaro Newton regard the Breaking Cat News team as the "floor cats".

Introduced here is the other cat belonging to Tommy's human: Sophie. Sophie is a marmalade tabby who is blind in her left eye. She loves to read and is a mixed-medium modernism artist. She's not friendly to Tommy.

The season turns to Fall and the man goes to check the wiring because the washer isn't working right. Puck meets Tillie, the ghost of a tortoiseshell cat who was a reporter in life. She wants comments on the new addition to the Big Pink House, only the new addition was added in 1913. (That's according to p.36. The main house was built in 1898.)

Neither Lupin nor Elvis can see Tillie, but Tabitha can. The blonde who lives in the third floor apartment brings a puffed-out Tabitha with her. She asks the woman if her cats have been going crazy. The baby is asleep in the woman's arms. but the boy could be pointing at either Tillie or Tabitha when he says, 'Mow mow,' his name for cats.

Both ladies wonder if it could be ghosts. The humans join the man in the basement because Ceiling Woman remembers there's a box there with photos of the family that built the house. After they find that 1913 photo showing a little girl holding a cat and the inscription on the other side, the women use a Ouija board. They think it's not working because of the message they're getting, but we readers (and Lupin) can see the ghost of a frustrated old woman.

Ceiling Woman goes to the Quinn Library. She brings back information about Winifred 'Freddie' Quinn. whose family built the Big Pink House. She founded a combination cat shelter and veterinary clinic, the Quinn Cat Shelter, in memory of her beloved cat, Matilda, who went missing when she was a girl.

Yes, we do find out what happened to Tillie. Pages 53 and 54 tugged at my heartstrings.

From there we learn about Sophie and her art, followed by the horror that is being out of kibble -- and litter! (Elvis' reaction is understandable.) Lupin gets in some green paint. There's a segment where the BCN team believes a video game is about a tiny human trapped in the TV.

The family prepares for Thanksgiving. (I particularly enjoyed Puck's name for canned jellied cranberries.) No notices that the robber mice have been busy carrying off bits of the feast.

Pucky's Perfect Christmas Tips is interrupted by the discovery that his favorite toy, Buzzy Mouse, has been kidnapped!
Page 80 shows the mug shots for the Robber Mice Gang. All of their little black boards have 'Cedar Falls' at the top. Is that the name of the place where the mug shots were taken or the name of the town where the Big Pink House is? For the curious, Alice is number 3640 - 005, Violet is 3640 - 006, Natasha is 3640 - 007, and Agnes, who is trying to hide behind her sign, is 3640 - 008. The ransom note has been delivered. Will the ransom be paid?

Sweet Puck snaps his candy cane and calls for revenge. (Shocking!) Meanwhile, at the Robber Mice Den, Agnes feels sorry for Puck and tries to get Agnes to give Buzzy Mouse back. Natasha and Violet are busy watching the cat soap opera "Our IX Lives". (Violet's comment about star cat Kit Chase made me chuckle.)

The cats' attempt to capture the robber mice allows us to see that Natasha wields a mighty sharp needle. One of the mice is captured. She and Puck talk. Burt gives Puck advice. The other three robber mice try for a rescue. What next?

What's next is a page of 'Our IX Lives' that will have to hold us until we get an episode on p.117. Back in the real world, Baba Mouse intervenes. Christmas happens, followed by the New Year Countdown. (During the Christmas celebration, Tommy does something that wins Sophie over.)

The boy is talking more. None of his names for the cats are correct. The woman has bought a cactus. Will it be safe from her beloved felines?

In the soap opera, fish oil tycoon Snowball Taggert is faking heart disease to manipulate his daughter, Agnes. Older sister Princess sees right through him, though. Stray cat Kit Chase tries to convince Angora to run away with him. What luck, Princess' missing husband, Captain Nimble, had sent a letter to his good friend Kit. (The address gives us the name of the town where the soap opera takes place: Viejo Gatto, California.)

The last catly adventure of the book involves Elvis and butter.

Once again we have 'More to Explore' pages. It starts out with how to turn ordinary rocks into one's own cat reporters. Page 126 has a picture of the Big Pink House, which is on a hill. Page 127 is a map of the 2nd floor apartment. Page 128 is tips for paper dolls. (I would just photocopy the pages instead of cutting out the paper dolls and their outfits on pp. 129 -137.) Our paper doll models this time are Tabitha, Sir Figaro Newton, Burt, and Tillie.

I love the comic strip and I love being able to read it in book form. I hope I've given enough of an idea of the contents to help fans figure out if a favorite storyline is included. Unless one insists that one's cat books feature cats in fur only, I recommend this book for cat lovers. ( )

Fun volume. This one had a couple longer storylines, which were interesting but also not, I found, as charming as the shorter stories. The long stories anthropomorphize the cats and how they interact with the world more than the shorter ones, and I prefer the cat's eye view of The People. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/r7SPxrNUjRQ

Enjoy! ( )

“Take It Away, Tommy” is Georgia Dunn’s third BCN book and as with the other two (“Breaking Cat News” and “Lupin Leaps In”), it is a compendium of her cartoon strips from the recent past. I already knew all of the stories in this volume as I read her comic every day, but I love the comic so much that I will happily buy all the books (and teeshirts, and bookmarks and posters and pins and….) that she chooses to put out. The back of this volume includes tips on how to make cat reporters out of pet rocks, and tips for making paper dolls, including costumes for all the cats. I never pretend to give an “objective” review of Ms. Dunn’s work because I’m totally besotted with it (Pucky’s my favourite, but don’t tell Elvis or Lupin that!); I’m just super-happy to have my own copy of this volume. You can find the strip at GoComics.com - give it a look and see if you don’t adore it as much as I do! Recommended, of course! ( )

I received this copy of Take It Away, Tommy! from Andrews McMeel Publishing as the result of a giveaway. The opinions in this review are mine alone.

I gave this book a 3/5 stars due to the randomness of it. It jumped from one thing to the next. It had no flow. It was choppy for lack of a better word. I personally didn't care for the "story" as it was written. Neither did my grandsons, one who prefers to read this type of book (just didn't like this one).

We all agreed that the illustrations were great. So there's that. ( )