WHY DO CATS HAVE WHISKERS?

Canadian MacLeod has assembled a varied list of questions and topics concerning North America’s most popular pet (there are 10 million more cats as pets than dogs). The usual subjects are covered: purring, Bas the Egyptian goddess, largest and smallest breeds, wild origins and catnip. There are also some surprises, such as two legends illustrating the Prophet Mohammed’s love of cats and the feline origin of the world’s rarest coffee, Kopi Luwak (which will please seekers of the gross). Three matching quizzes (with the answers inverted below), a chart to calculate your cat’s human age and simple guidelines to train your feline add an interactive twist. Serious researchers will need further resources, but the casual browser and the curious will be quite satisfied with the clear, concise text and the many photographs of happy kitties of various ages, sizes and breeds. The recurring fishbone motif decorating the pages is evidence of both the care and the sense of fun that went into the creation of this happy hodgepodge of cat facts. (Nonfiction. 7-12)