MERRY MITTENS

One not-so-silent night, three neighborhood cats have a mellow Christmastime adventure.

It’s “moontime,” and besties Carl, Biscuit, and Peewee are “ready to make some merry mischief.” They know it’s a special night because “the neighborhood is brighter than usual” (it’s aglow with holiday lights), although two of the decorative blue lights strung on a fence are “not what they seem” (attentive readers will spy the blue eyes of a strange feline). As the trio embark on a journey, they tussle in the snow, squabble about who will lead, and so on, until they end up at “the hideout of a sneaky thief with a stash of loot”—a mouse in a Santa hat who’s purloined some trinkets from humans. Will the three friends manage to return one of the stolen objects—a star-shaped Christmas tree topper—to its rightful spot? And will the blue-eyed cat who’s been trailing the trio finally get some love? In his latest picture-book collaboration with Morris, Mylie uses colored pencils and watercolors to create luminous black-backgrounded compositions that call to mind “black magic” crayon art—an impression perfectly age-aligned with the book’s plentiful onomatopoeia and early-reader-level text, which rhymes when it feels like it. While the story doesn’t oversell the Christmas spirit, a concluding act of kitty kindness is sweet enough to melt snow.

Laid-back feline Yuletide antics.