WHERE IS CATKIN?

This third outing from the sisterly team of Lord and Paschkis is a visual feast for young readers. For Amy’s golden cat, it is time to hunt. As he slinks through the pages, he sees the creatures that fill his backyard habitat—cricket, frog, mouse, snake and bird—but all elude capture. The author gives readers a chance to guess what animal that Catkin is stalking with onomatopoeic clues to accompany the visual ones. A turn of the page reveals the answer in the text and, for observant readers, in the picture. The last few pages are a seek-and-find dream for children, with Catkin searching all around and not finding the five animals. In frustration, he climbs a tree for a better view, which is where Amy finds him. Paschkis’s black-backgrounded folk-art illustrations fill the pages with vibrant colors and simple, stylized shapes—the ideal backdrop for hiding the small creatures that Catkin hunts. The gorgeous red-and-yellow borders are a cumulative collection of the animals. Lovely. (Picture book. 2-6)