THE TALES OF GRANDPA CAT

Off to the grandfolks, now in retirement at Catnip Acres, go the felines Christopher, Ellen, and Fergie, a triumvirate of the kind seen much of late on television and in books: the older dweeb brother, the middle resourceful sis, and the young near- mute hanger-on. Grandpa regales the troop with sketches of the community's more renowned denizens: Diamond Jim Kitty (made and lost a fortune in the mitten trade); Billy the Kitten (number one ratter until Calico Jane crossed his path); Tabby Houdini (who gave the King of Catalonia a one-way ticket to a disappearing act). Wardlaw (Seventh-Grade Weirdo, 1992) leaves these stories dangling and slathers them with cat puns: Catillac cars, a wealthy aristocat, the state of N. Catolina, you get the drift. The stories are also playful attention-getters and come to a fine, loopy conclusion with the tale of Kitty Hawk. Lending a note of cracked sophistication to the book are the lunacies of Searle, ink-and-pencil and watercolor treasures that keep things hopping. (Fiction/Picture book. All ages)