Purrball Meets Burrball in Brazil Review

Purrball Meets Burrball in Brazil by Anne Zoet is a sweet children's book I recently had the opportunity to read.

Purrball is a gray cat who has a loving family.  He and his family are moving to Brazil.  The family makes it to Brazil fine, but when an earthquake strikes, Purrball gets scared and runs away.  He runs into a sloth with three toes in a tree.  Purrball decides to name the sloth Burrball because the sloth reminds him of the burs he gets stuck in his fur.

Burrball helps Purrball use the cellphone and charger he had wrapped around his leg when he ran away to contact his family so they can find him.  They run into some challenges, but ultimately Purrball and his family are reunited.

The book is really cute.  It teaches children about trust and friendship.  The incorporation of technology into the storyline is really genius and makes the book modern.  I think any child who loves animals will really enjoy this book.

Author Interview with Anne Zoet

What inspired you to write this book?
Anne Zoet: The story hit me on a day that I took out for myself away from my high tech work. I was having a massage, which is when I zone-out and don’t think about anything. Oddly, this time, I started creating the Purrball and Burrball storyline the more and more I unwound. I was so relaxed that the whole thing unfolded start to finish.




How Would you describe the characters of Purrball and Burrball?Smart, kind, resourceful and they’re team players. Animals are invariably way more clever than we humans give them credit for. I’ve seen my cats use incredible logic to alter a situation they’re in. I once had a cat run away in a place she didn’t know (the worst weeks of my life searching every day) but she found her way back, though completely unfamiliar with the surroundings. I have another cat, my outdoor cat, who you can see trotting alongside opossums and raccoons in evenings. That scared me so much at first, but eventually we’ve come to see that he has a real relationship with them. He’s so smart and the more I see the wildlife interact with him, the more I see them as clever and accepting and even friendly. The Purrball and Burrball characters came to me before I moved to this area and could witness my cat and his outdoor adventures. But this experience really solidified how Purrball and Burrball should be portrayed as a team. I think that my cat’s experiences with wildlife show that animals are capable of very unexpected bonds with one another.

Why did you choose to write about a cat and a sloth?I’m crazy about both domestic and wild animals and it is a passion that just gets deeper all the time. I’ve done a lot of research on cats (on nutrition and behavior) as well as love to build cat structures and make toys for them. And, I do not know who could look at a sloth and not smile! They have the sweetest faces and they have so much more to them than the “sloth” slowness we think of. They’re rather industrious buggers and have some funny quirks, like the wildlife that grows in their fur. I firmly believe they should never be pets and should be kept wild. While the story is pure fantasy (as are stories where animals communicate with phones!), I really want to keep one a pet and the other wild and be true to my feelings about that and it would be so lovely to pass all that along to children!

How do Purrball and Burrball use technology in the book?Purrball, the cat, is unable to send a critical text message, so she asks Burrball, the sloth, if he could tap with his toes to write it. Maybe that’s my wish: I wish my cats would find a way to text me what they’re thinking, lol.

Did any of your three cats influence the character of Purrball, either in physical likeness or personality?All three: one has the coloring of Purrball (I love grey kitties, although I suppose Purrball is a bit blue, really) and she has some cute characteristics—the scene where Purrball is looking up curiously at Burrball is so her! I have another onn who is a squat and roundish cat with intense eyes and sitting frontally she looks like a black and white version of Purrball. And the last cat is the most clever cat you could imagine. I rolled them all into one.

Will we see the duo return in a future book?They have many adventures ahead! If a picture book were not a short thing, I’d probably be just finishing up chapter 18 at this time because I have so many ideas for Purrball and Burrball. But yes, there’s one in the works already as well as a few other animal adventures that are rattling around in my head.

You can purchase Purrball Meets Burrball in Brazil by Anne Zoet on Amazon.

FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of "Purrball Meets Burrball in Brazil" by Anne Zoet for a fair and honest review.  Receiving the book did not influence my opinions.  All opinions expressed on Fur Everywhere are my own.  The purchase link included in this post is not an affiliate link.