THE LITTLE CAT BABY

A small volume in the hand is full of winsome nonsense. Exquisitely detailed pictures in black and white reflect the gently silly story set in “a topsy-turvy time.” A plump, feather-and-flower-bedecked couple goes to Nurse Doodle’s shop to get a baby, leaving the pink baby and the green baby and the flowerpot-throwing baby to take home a cat baby, who learns to say “Meow” and “Purr” and “More milk.” Then one “harum-scarum night,” shadows and fireworks wake up the cat baby and she runs off “down the trafficky street, across the fireworky park,” to find herself at Nurse Doodle’s, who returns her to her anxious parents. “In the sunny month of December,” she wins second prize in the baby show, first prize in the cat show, and climbs the Christmas Ladder to where Santa sits in a sky balloon surrounded by presents and children. Charming gossamer whimsy. (Picture book. 4-7)