THE SPACE CAT

A funky feline explores new landscapes.

The Space Cat, an Oriental shorthair known to his humans as Periwinkle, has an imagination as expansive as the universe. Lovingly tended to during the day, Periwinkle slinks off to his luxurious Space Cat lair at night and, from there, zooms away into the boundless night sky in a small orblike spaceship. But things are about to change; Periwinkle’s family has decided to spend a year in Nigeria—where they’re originally from—so his human mom can work on her book. For the intrepid explorer, Nigeria is as alien a landscape as the outer bounds of the universe, not least because the humans there have a strong distaste for cats, and the other cats that live there are hardened by that harsh reality. But ultimately, Periwinkle puzzles out his place in Nigeria’s feline society and enjoys a disaster-averting adventure, with help from the curious cast of animals who slink around the local marketplace. Okorafor’s storytelling is intuitively episodic, blurring the realities of everyday pet life with gleeful fantasy. Ford’s sci-fi comic illustrations, rich with cosmic blues, purples, and oranges, bring a dynamic energy to this eccentric escapade. Periwinkle’s particular syntax (“When I come here, I reminded all things possible,” “Yes, I winning!”) may distract or amuse, depending on the reader.

A glowing, flowing, and uniquely imaginative cat story.