In late 2011, Bruel published A Bad Kitty Christmas as a picture book.

The following is a list of cats that make their debuts in Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty.

Lynn Beckwith at Bookpage.com describes Kitty as "a joyfully silly portrait of a picky eater with attitude", and that Bruel's illustrations are bold and humorous.

[23] In 2020, the Bad Kitty series was named the 37th most banned and challenged book in the United States between 2010 and 2019, according to the American Library Association.

[24] Bad Kitty for President, in particular, attracted controversy for its usage of a grawlix as a stand-in for swear words.