Luckily, curiosity does not kill the cat in David Wiesner's (Tuesday; Flotsam) latest, nearly wordless masterpiece.
The only human presence involves a couple of cameo appearances of the presumed owner, dangling a fish from a thread ("Look, Mr. Wuffles, a new toy!") and later inquiring of the pet, "What's so interesting, Mr. Wuffles?" When the human disturbs the cat from his nap, Mr. Wuffles stalks off, past a trail of unused toys. But wait--one of these is not like the others. From inside a ball-shaped gray structure on three legs, some tiny green beings peer out of a horizontal opening. Wiesner cuts to the interior, where the creatures make sounds of an alien kind, represented by symbols and geometric shapes. Next, the aliens see the green eyes of the cat staring through their window and... topsy-turvy they go. Wiesner cuts back and forth between the two views as the five alien passengers assess the damage, then make a mad dash to safety under a heat register.
In a time-honored tradition of stories that stretch from Gulliver's Travels to The Twilight Zone's "The Invaders," Wiesner's tale juxtaposes a collision of two worlds. Young readers will identify with both Mr. Wuffles, who's aware of a fascinating world undetected by adults, and also with the aliens who face seemingly insurmountable odds laid out by beings much larger than they. The author-artist's ability to toggle between these two viewpoints adds up to a larger whole and a wider perspective, and both sides may win readers' sympathies. A great conversation starter. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness