CAT COUNT

Reissue of a 1981 title (originally published by Dodd, Mead), given a larger trim size and illustrations that are redrawn, colored versions of the originals. It’s a counting rhyme and addition problem in one: “My uncle has four. / Four cats. / Store cats. / In-and-out-of-door cats. / I know someone with more cats. / My cousin has five,” and so on, up to ten. Depicting a growing horde of expressively drawn, comically cross-eyed felines, Lewin pauses occasionally to tote them all up (in the original, readers were challenged to do this on their own), then belatedly concludes that there are “TOO MANY CATS!” when her own fat one suddenly produces kittens. The bouncy rhyme makes a fine and funny read-aloud, and both cat-lovers and compulsive young counters will linger happily over the ever-more-populous pictures. (Picture book. 6-8)