Super Spinach

Hannah Shaw, Bev Johnson

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781665901246
• eBook ISBN: 9781665901260

From New York Times bestselling author Hannah Shaw—also known as Kitten Lady—comes the second book in an exciting and heartwarming new chapter book series following a sickly kitten who wants to be a superhero for her fellow fosters!

Spinach hates having her own cage in the animal shelter. It’s so boring! She wants to pounce on crinkly balls, chase ribbons, and climb up scratchers with the four feisty kittens that live beside her. But Spinach is sick, so she has to watch from the sidelines.

Then Spinach is taken to the vet’s office, where they fix her right up. Now, she can jump, pounce, and play! The old tomcat at the vet’s said she’d have to be a superhero to get through the procedure so…that must mean she now has superpowers!

Super Spinach is taken to Fosterland, where she gets her own sidekick, a roly-poly kitten named Chickpea, and a superhero uniform that she believes gives her the special powers. But when her super suit is taken away, will Super Spinach still be able to save the day?

CHAPTER 1 The White Card

“Pow!” shouted a tiny tabby named Bruce as his paw struck a crinkle ball, sending it flying toward his littermates.

“Bam!” called his sister, Sally, as she swiped it out of the air with her fluffy mitts.

Slam! Two calicos named Prissy and Peach jumped for the ball and collided.

The four kittens were tucked into the back room of an animal shelter, tumbling in their metal kennel like furry wrestlers. Across the way, they had an audience of one: a tiny little kitten named Spinach who was peering at them through the bars of her own separate kennel.

Although Spinach longed to play with the shiny toy that had captured the other kittens’ attention, she couldn’t join in on the fun. Instead, she sat with her face smooshed against the metal poles, taking shallow breaths and watching as the ball bounced from paw to paw, imagining how fun it would be to play, too. But she was smaller and frailer than the other kittens, and in no condition to be twisting, jumping, rolling, or sprinting. And so there she sat, stuck on the sidelines while the others perfected their pounces.

“Think fast!” called Sally as she threw the crinkle ball straight into the air. Prissy, Peach, and Bruce all made a leap for it, colliding on top of the ball and falling into a pile of laughter.

“Hey, keep it down up there!” grumbled Jack, the cat in the kennel below them. “I’m trying to get some beauty rest before my big adoption day.”

The kittens rolled their eyes and kept playing. They had so much energy!

Bam! Bam! Pow! The ball flew back and forth across the kennel.

Sally slammed against the bars as she swiped the ball into the kennel corner, where Spinach could get a closer look at the glittery toy. Spinach giggled as she watched. “That looks fun! I wish I could play.”

“Sorry, Spinach! It’s just… you know,” Sally said with a shrug. She picked up the ball in her mouth and trotted back over to her siblings.

“I know,” Spinach said to no one, and shrank into the corner of the cage.

The trouble is, Spinach didn’t know. Well, she sort of knew that she was different, but she didn’t really know why. All she knew was that her whole life, she’d been unable to do the things that other kittens her age could do. She was easily winded—even walking to the water dish caused her to wheeze—so playtime was not an option. That was just the way it was.

Spinach had silver fur with gray tiger stripes, but she didn’t feel like a tiger at all. Tigers run and pounce and go on adventures, but Spinach couldn’t do any of those things. She had been born with an extra-small, misshapen rib cage that made it difficult for her to breathe deeply or walk comfortably. Anytime her chest was touched, it sent a prickly feeling through her body, like her heart was caught in a cactus garden. Because of this, she had always been a very cautious kitten who moved slowly, kept to herself, and didn’t take many risks.

Of course, Spinach didn’t know life any other way, and she was quite used to passing the days sitting very still, quietly observing the world around her through soft almond-shaped eyes. But deep inside, she longed for the friendship and adventure all the other kittens seemed to have.

Sigh. Alone in her kennel, Spinach had nothing but a litter box, a water dish, and a front-row seat to watch the other kittens playing without her.

Spinach hung her head and looked down at her paws. The newspaper that lined her kennel was making her daydream about the world beyond the bars. In the printed pictures, everyone seemed to have a friend: the businesspeople, the models, and even the cartoon characters! She squinted at a superhero comic showing a crime-fighting duo flying through the sky. It seemed like they had it all: amazing costumes, cool gadgets, and an entire cast of supporting characters. It didn’t make sense that her life had to be so boring… and so lonely. Why did everyone else get to have all the fun? Spinach closed her eyes and imagined soaring through the air and doing important things like saving babies and protecting the world from bad guys.

But then the image faded, and she sighed. Spinach knew she could never do any of that.

When Spinach looked up, Bruce, Sally, Prissy, and Peach had lost interest in the crinkle ball, and now they all sat admiring the blue card that hung on their kennel. The card was just placed there today, and it was a big event in the life of any shelter cat. Probably the most important of all!

“You know, once you get a blue card clipped to your kennel, it means you’re about to go out to the adoption floor! I heard it from Wilson, the black cat who used to live in cage six. Once his blue card arrived, it was only a matter of hours before he found his home!” Bruce said, tapping at the card. “This thing is a one-way ticket to Foreverland!”

“No more cages, just a big house and a family to call your own…,” said Peach. “Prissy, we’ll go to a home together, right? Priss?”

Prissy smiled and nodded her head. “Sisters stick together for life!”

Sally bumped her shoulders with Bruce and announced, “Every kitten needs a sidekick!”

Spinach looked at them longingly, then looked back at her lonely cage. If every kitten needs a sidekick, then where is mine? All her life she’d been the outcast—too petite to play with the others, too fragile to find a friend. Everyone had a buddy but her.

Well, there was one other cat who was alone—Jack. Spinach tilted her head as she looked down at him, all curled up on a donut bed in the kennel below, sleeping the day away. “Excuse me, I’m sorry to pester you, but… are you… would you happen to… might you be looking for a sidekick?” Spinach crossed her toe beans, hoping.

Jack yawned and looked up at her. “Eh, that’s real sweet, kid, but I’m kind of a loner. Besides, I’m getting adopted today, remember?” He pressed his nose against the kennel, and his blue card glimmered.

“Oh,” Spinach said. “Well, that’s okay. Congratulations on your big day.…”

She slumped over in the corner of her cage. Where was her blue card?

Spinach tapped against the bar and quietly asked the kittens, “Do you think I’ll ever get a blue card, too?”

“I’m sure yours is coming any minute,” Sally said, holding up a comforting paw. She opened her mouth to say more, but then—

Click! A shelter worker had returned, and she had clipped a card onto Spinach’s cage. For a moment, Spinach felt a flutter of excitement, but the feeling vanished when she saw that the card looked different from the others. It wasn’t blue—it was white.

Why does my card look different? Spinach wondered. What does this mean? With small, shallow breaths, she could feel her chest getting tighter as panic set in. “Does anyone know why my card is white?”

Peach looked to Prissy. Prissy looked to Bruce. Bruce looked to Sally. And Sally just scratched her head, confused.

But Jack, the big cat in the kennel below, spoke up. “Yeah, I know that card, kid. A white card means a visit with the white-coat people. I think they’re called a vetrin… a vetrinaire… Well, I don’t know how to pronounce it. They’re basically called a vet or something. They are the ones who show up when a cat needs help. That’s you, kid.”

Spinach’s heart was thump-thump-thumping in her tiny chest, which was ever so uncomfortable. She knew that the white-coat people, who were apparently called vets, were there to help, but she didn’t like the sound of visiting them at all. She wanted to go to the adoption floor!

Just then, a shelter employee in a blue shirt came and picked up Jack. As he exited the room in her arms, he turned to Spinach and said, “The road to Foreverland is ever-winding, kid. It ain’t the same for every cat. I mean, look at me! I’m just now finding my forever home, and I’m fifteen years old. Imagine that—a hefty old guy like me! Don’t worry ’bout it, kid. Your time will come—!” The door closed and he was gone.

Spinach looked to the others with distress. “Is everyone really getting adopted but me?”

“Oh, Spinach, it’s okay,” Sally said. “It’s like the old guy said. You just have a different pathway… a special journey you have to take. That’s all.”

“But I don’t want a different pathway,” Spinach wheezed, reaching through the bars to try to bat the card away and make it all stop. “I want to be adopted with you guys!”

Spinach tried and tried, but she couldn’t take the card down.

“Turn blue!” she called out as she bopped the card, hoping for it to magically transform. But she had no power in her paws, and in all her smacking, she had only succeeded in making it swing back and forth, taunting her as it moved side to side, undeniably white.

The door opened again, and two workers in blue shirts approached the kennel, which rattled as it unlocked. The other kittens were being plucked from the cage faster than Spinach could catch her breath to say goodbye. Peach, Prissy, Sally, and Bruce were whisked a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Chapter 1: The White Card
• Chapter 2: Your Heart Is in Danger
• Chapter 3: Super-Kitten Incoming
• Chapter 4: I Can Fly
• Chapter 5: Sock Collection
• Chapter 6: Let Me-Owt
• Chapter 7: The Laundry Chute
• Chapter 8: Powerless
• Chapter 9: Solo Mission
• Chapter 10: A Friend in Trouble
• Chapter 11: Mission Accomplished?
• Chapter 12: New Neighbors
• Chapter 13: Super Sisters
• The True Story of Spinach and Chickpea
• About the Author
• Copyright