In the Press
Perfect Union: Kids Practice Reading to Shy Cats at Columbus Shelter (December 11, 2018)
By Lindsay Oliver for Spectrum News 1 Ohio
Columbus, OH — According to the ASPCA, 3.2 million cats enter U.S. shelters every years, but only about half get adopted. It's even harder to get a cat a home if it's shy and afraid of people. A Columbus author may found a solution that's also educational for kids.
Wolfgang Parker penned the "Crime Cats" series, which is about a super hero boy who solves mysteries with his feline partners.
Clintonville Shelter’s Crime Cats Reading Club Up to Scratch, Group Says (November 5, 2018)
By Kevin Parks for ThisWeek Newspaper
Shy cats and shy kids both benefit from the Crime Cats Mystery Club at the Cat Welfare Association.
Now, the club is benefiting from a little recognition, courtesy of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association.
Wolfgang Parker turns Christmas gift into successful Crime Cats (July 3, 2018)
By David Phelps for Clintonville Spotlight
In the four years since Wolfgang Parker released the first Crime Cats book, the series has grown beyond his modest intentions into something of a local phenomenon.
“It started out as a Christmas gift for my 19 nieces and nephews who all live out-of-state,” said Parker. Choosing to write what he knew, Parker set the story in South Clintonville and included the cats he would see in the neighborhood.
Shy Cats (June 20, 2018)
By Jonathan P. for ThatOhioVibe.com
The Crime Cats Mystery Club in Columbus is more than a children’s book club. It’s a unique partnership between Cat Welfare Association and Crime Cats, to help socialize shy cats while allowing children to build their confidence reading. More confident readers...More adoptable cats...Purrfect! Watch video below
The Crime Cats of Clintonville (June 4, 2018)
By Jonathan P. for ThatOhioVibe.com
Ever since moving to Clintonville, Wolfgang Parker couldn’t get over how many cats were in his neighborhood. Now he’s the award winning author/illustrator of the children’s book series “Crime Cats”, which features felines from his beloved community. These aren’t just any cats, they’re cats who solve mysteries and uncover Columbus’ hidden history in the process. Watch video below
Books: Crime Cats Mystery Club (July 31, 2017)
By Kathy Lynn Gray for Columbus Monthly Magazine
A captive audience might be the key to discovering the joys of reading—as long as the audience has whiskers. This summer, Cat Welfare Association, the Clintonville cat shelter, launched a new program in which children read aloud to homeless cats. The young readers practice their skills before nonjudgmental listeners while the kitties gain valuable socialization time with humans, an experience that can improve their chances of adoption.
“When kids are reading with those cats, they bond with them, and it’s a hands-on way to learn about empathy,” says Clintonville children’s author Wolfgang Parker, who teamed with Cat Welfare to start the program, called Crime Cats Mystery Club, named after Parker’s Crime Cats series of early-reader chapter books.
Reading program helps ‘shy cats’ at Clintonville shelter bond with people (June 29, 2017)
By Margaret Quamme for The Columbus Dispatch
Eleven-year-old Jenna Christian took a folded blanket and placed it on the linoleum floor, facing away from the adults in the room and toward stacked rows of cat cubbies.
She had selected “I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor” from one of six plastic boxes full of books in a corner of the room. Seated on the blanket, she began to read aloud, briskly in a low voice.
Wolfgang Parker, author of 'Crime Cats' (December 16, 2017)
By Jackie Shafer for Broad & High on WOSU-PBS
Musician and Clintonville resident Wolfgang Parker recently put down his mic and picked up a pen to write and illustrate Crime Cats. What started out as a way to connect with his nieces and nephews has turned into a three-volume series for young readers. The books feature an eight-year-old superhero who, with his team of cat detectives, solves mysteries around Clintonville. Watch video below
'Crime Cats' books drag local history into tales (November 18, 2015)
By Kevin Parks for ThisWeek Newspapers
History and mystery will converge once again in the third Crime Cats children's book by Clintonville author Wolfgang Parker.
For Crime Cats: The Deadly Scarab, Parker turns to his Columbus neighborhood's contribution to a famous discovery in Egypt's Valley of the Kings nearly a century ago.
Reading List: 'Crime Cats' Sequel (October 21, 2015)
By Miriam Bowers Abbott for ColumbusUnderground.com
Wolfgang Parker never planned on being a children’s book author.
He’s a punk singer and recording artist. He’s a photographer and a graphic novelist. But he’s also a guy with nineteen nieces and nephews; he did a little writing for them. Then one thing led to another, and somehow he’s sold over 3000 children’s books in the last eighteen months. Guess he’s children’s book author, after all.
'Crime Cats' Back for More Mystery, History (November 4, 2014)
Local author 'humbled' by response to first book in series
By Kevin Parks for ThisWeek Clintonville
Aleya Williams is looking forward to seeing her favorite mystery-solvers back in action.
"I like the cats," the Clintonville girl, who turns 10 on Nov. 27, said last week. "I think they were very nice."
Wolfgang Parker, an independent recording artist who decided to write a children's book for his many nieces and nephews around the country, has followed up Crime Cats: Missing, which was published in March, with Crime Cats: The Dusenbury Curse.
Kitty pride: 'Crime Cats' Celebrates Neighborhood (July 1, 2014)
Feline sleuths work with chicken-suited boy in local man's first children's book, written as a love letter to Clintonville
By Kevin Parks for ThisWeek Newspaper
After nine months of writing and much trial and error on the illustrations, Wolfgang Parker has completed his first children's book.
What started out as a project to entertain the Clintonville resident's 18 nieces and nephews scattered around the country, as well as to endear himself to them, over time turned into an homage to the independent recording artist-turned-writer's neighborhood.
The result is Crime Cats: Missing, which Parker said he feels would appeal to fans of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series.