History Literature / SnotStew

* CatsAreMean: Played with; Kikki is a sweetheart, while her brother is a bit of a brat.

* DramaticIrony: Invoked with [[spoiler:the rhyme Toby uses to tease Butch: "Fatty, fatty, two-by-four!/Couldn't get through the bathroom door!/So he did it on the floor!" Comes back to haunt him when he can't escape through the hole in Butch's fence anymore...]]
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: [[spoiler: Butch manages to finally catch Toby after he gets stuck under the fence and chews the kitten's tail right off. One book cover actually shows the aftermath of this]][[spoiler:[[note]]Toby's back end sticking out of the fence with his now stubby tail and a fleshy pink spot where the tip should be facing the reader[[/note]]]].

%%* HumansThroughAlienEyes:
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Kikki and Toby hear their owners' kids having [[ArgumentOfContradictions contradicting arguments]], so they decide to do the same thing and think it's a game called "snot stew". Toby [[BigBrotherBully goes too far with it]] and steals Kikki's food, and he ends up getting stuck in the fence due to his BalloonBelly. His [[AttackTheTail tail gets torn off]] by a vicious dog named Butch, so he and Kikki promise each other not to play "snot stew" afterwards to keep an incident like that from occurring again.

%%* CuteKitten

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Toby repeatedly teases Butch by jumping into his pen and escaping through a hole in the fence]]. He also [[spoiler:bullies his sister and eats all her food]]. This winds up biting him in the butt [[spoiler:quite literally when he can't fit through the hole anymore]].

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: [[spoiler: Butch manages to finally catch Toby after he gets stuck under the fence and chews the kitten's tail right off. One book cover actually shows the aftermath of this [[note]]Toby's back end sticking out of the fence with his now stubby tail and a fleshy pink spot where the tip should be facing the reader[[note]]]].

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: [[spoiler: Butch manages to finally catch Toby after he gets stuck under the fence and chews the kitten's tail right off. One book cover actually shows the aftermath of this [[note]] Toby's back end sticking out of the fence with his now stubby tail and a fleshy pink spot where the tip should be facing the reader[[note]]]].

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: [[spoiler: Butch manages to finally catch Toby after he gets stuck under the fence and chews the kitten's tail right off]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Toby lives through his mauling, but loses his tail. The book ends with him still drowsy from the emergency surgery that saved his life, crying weakly while Kikki tries to comfort him.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Toby bullies his sister and eats all her food, growing larger and larger. He also teases Butch, even jumping down into his backyard pen and escaping through a hole in the fence before getting caught. Turns out these two hobbies don't mesh together well...]]

* MoodWhiplash: Though mostly a light-hearted comedy, it takes a darker turn when [[spoiler:Butch attacks]].

%%* BewareOfViciousDog: Butch.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Stew. The title is actually a mondegreen based on what she ''thinks'' the kids are saying when they fight, sparking a lot of confusion.

The title comes from the 'game' the children keep playing: [[ArgumentOfContradictions arguing]] "Is not!" "Is too!" "Isnot!" "Istoo!" "Snot!" "Stew!" Toby and Kikki eventually try it out; this leads to an obvious [[AnAesop moral]] delivered via NightmareFuel.

* BewareOfViciousDog: Butch, of course.

* [[CuteKitten Everything's Cuter With Kittens]]

* [[HumansThroughAlienEyes Humans Though Kitten Eyes]]
* MondegreenGag: An in-universe mondegreen names the book, which comes from the [[CuteKitten kitten protagonists]] mishearing the human children arguing: "Is not!" "Is too!" becomes "S'not!" "S'tew!"
* MoodWhiplash: Though mostly a light-hearted comedy, it takes a darker turn when [[spoiler:Butch attacks.]]

* ShrinkingViolet: Kikki. At one point, almost a full chapter is spent hiding beneath the couch, and it becomes one of her 'safe spots'.

[[quoteright:160:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SnotStew.jpg]]

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Stew. The title is actually a {{Mondegreen}} based on what she ''thinks'' the kids are saying when they fight, sparking a lot of confusion.

* MoodWhiplash: Starts off as a light-hearted comedy, but takes a darker turn when Kikki and Toby first encounter Butch.

The title comes from the 'game' the children keep playing: arguing "Is not!" "Is too!" "Isnot!" "Istoo!" "Snot!" "Stew!" Toby and Kikki eventually try it out; this leads to an obvious [[AnAesop moral]] delivered via NightmareFuel.

!!''Literature/SnotStew'' contains examples of:

%%* MoodWhiplash

* AnimalTalk - The kittens can understand human speech, but can't breach the communication barrier. Also, they can't understand Butch's barking and growling.
* BittersweetEnding - [[spoiler: Toby lives through his mauling, but loses his tail. The book ends with him still drowsy from the emergency surgery that saved his life, crying weakly while Kikki tries to comfort him.]]
* CatsAreMean - Played with; Kikki is a sweetheart, while her brother is a bit of a brat.
* [[spoiler: CowardlyLion - When Butch finally catches Toby, Kikki leaps onto the dog's back to distract him.]]
* DramaticIrony - Invoked with [[spoiler: the rhyme Toby uses to tease Butch: "Fatty, fatty, two-by-four!/Couldn't get through the bathroom door!/So he did it on the floor!" Comes back to haunt him when he can't escape through the hole in Butch's fence anymore...]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard - [[spoiler: Toby bullies his sister and eats all her food, growing larger and larger. He also teases Butch, even jumping down into his backyard pen and escaping through a hole in the fence before getting caught. Turns out these two hobbies don't mesh together well...]]

* MoodWhiplash
* ParentalAbandonment -- [[DisappearedDad Daddy is never seen]]; Mommy leaves early on after deciding the kittens are able to fend for themselves now. May or may not be a justified trope, as this is how cats are.
* ShrinkingViolet - Kikki. At one point, almost a full chapter is spent hiding beneath the couch, and it becomes one of her 'safe spots'.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood - Stew. The title is actually a {{Mondegreen}} based on what she ''thinks'' the kids are saying when they fight, sparking a lot of confusion.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SnotStew.jpg Life can be tough when you're just a kitten. After their mother decides her latest litter is ready to fend for themselves and abandons them in their barnyard nest, Kikki and her brother Toby are discovered and adopted by a human family. But humans are so ''strange'', like that game the smaller ones keep playing...

!!''SnotStew'' contains examples of: