Anton and Cecil are close brothers, always watching out for each other, but they are as different as can be. Anton loves music and late nights. He’s small and doesn’t care much for hunting. Cecil is big and adventurous, longing to see new things, always up for something new. Oh, and they’re cats.
I picked this up from our library’s kids audio section before our family’s road trip down the Oregon Coast. The combo of cats and seafaring seemed like it was something that would appeal to Pearl and Rose. We listened to it on CD during some of our longer stretches of driving and finished the entire thing before the end of the trip.
We haven’t had great success with audiobooks on past trips but before I’ve always chosen books the girls have already read or more classics ones (The Secret Garden and Anne of Avonlea are a couple of examples). The girls were initially enthusiastic but we never actually finished them. Cats at Sea was far more successful. Both the language and the plot were fairly simple and I think this helped a lot for them to follow along.
Anton and Cecil are both thrown into adventure when Anton is captured and taken to sea as a live-aboard cat on a large ship. Cecil quickly follows after, seeking his brother across the ocean. From there the story alternates between the two cats, each coming across other animals, moving from one ship to another and having a nice variety of encounters. The tension of how the brothers will be reunited keeps the story moving nicely.
For reference, my kids are 5 and 1/2 and a freshly-turned 8 and this was a read-aloud that appealed nicely to them both, as well as being interesting enough for my husband and I to enjoy listening to as we drove.
Karissa Reads Books 
This sounds adorable! My kids loved your recommendation of Ms. Petitfour books (we are still finishing the second one) so basically anything with cats is a hit in our house. I looked this one up on indigo.ca and see its out of print, only the e-book edition is available. This might be one I try to pick it up at a used book store…
This is definitely for cat lovers! Maybe your library has it too?
I will look into it – cat lovers our family definitely is haha
I wonder if the kids have a hard time with audiobooks because there is no outside during which to ask questions. I know when someone read to me, I was incredibly disruptive due to my inquisitiveness!
Maybe! They definitely do interrupt a lot with questions and comments when I read aloud to them!
Oh lordy, reading to me is like reading to children, lol.
Hahaha! Do you also interrupt mid-sentence to show the reader the way you can do a somersault or explain a made-up story starring your stuffies?
Okay, I’m not that “bad,” lol. On the one hand, that is adorable. On the other hand, I would totally lose it.
Sometimes I do! I am trying to teach them to at least wait until I pause to take a breath but some nights I’m more patient than others.