ME AND MY CAT?

A common fantasy that children will immediately recognize is the hook in this offbeat picture book.

Late one night, Nicholas tells us even before the title page, "an old lady in a pointed hat" turned up in his room, said her spell, and disappeared. In the morning, Nicholas’s mom wakes him up and gets him off to school, but the pictures show the boy with his head in the cat bowl and sure enough, he’s become his cat, Leonardo. He begins to enjoy cat things—he knocks over a shelf, takes a nap, and tussles with a few other cats and the neighborhood dog. When Nicholas comes home from school, it’s really Leonardo, fighting with his shoes, stalking the goldfish, and finding the litter box "irresistible." A distraught mom calls the doctor, who decides everyone is overtired; that night the old lady returns, apologizes for having the wrong address, and cat and boy become themselves again the next day. The illustrations, with their flat colors and nervous edges, resemble Japanese anime, and the endpapers with their ghostly cat heads are fabulous. Whom the old lady meant to ensorcell accords the final

giggle. Silly good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)