September 18, 2018

“My dog rings the doorbells when he wants to go outside!”

“My dog ate my tooth from under the pillow!”

Sixth graders raised their hands and donated stories of their pets to the author with the black cat ears, a microphone, and a book in her arms. 

Margaret Stohl, writer, programmer, nerd, and crazy cat lady, came to O Henry to spread word of her new book, Cats VS. Robots. The book is about a cat named Pounce and his friends fighting against the robots in a universe with three main planets: Planet Robot, Planet Feline, and Planet Hairless

Ms. Stohl’s entire family helped create the characters and world of Cats VS. Robots. Some of the five cats (Pounce, Stu, Scout, Jiji, and Kiki), the four robots (Drags, CY, Tipsy, and Joan Drone), and five humans make up the real-life Stohl household. Her husband made the robots, one of her children was the illustrator, and her other kids filled the cats with their own character traits. 

During the visit, students listened to the author discuss her book, the story of her career, and how she became a writer. Ms. Stohl has written several books, including the Mighty Captain Marvel and the Beautiful Creatures series.  In addition to writing books, she shared her experience in the world of video games and her role in creating games, such as Fantastic Four and Zork: Grand Inquisitor.  She said,  ”Everybody tells their story differently, so you need to find what you like and do that!”

One sixth grader commented, “Cats VS. Robots is an amazing book and Ms. Stohl is really inspiring. She shows people that it’s okay to have two jobs.”