Cat's Very Good Day

Cat lovers everywhere will recognize the impish behavior of the entertaining feline protagonist in Kristen Tracy's Cat's Very Good Day. In a series of smoothly flowing rhyming couplets, Tracy captures the antics of one wily adult cat, brought to life on the page by David Small (Long Road to the Circus) as a striped ginger tabby.

How precisely does a cat define a "very good day" anyway? Well, the wildly expressive cat is a "sunrise lounger. Piano-key pounder," as well as a "dollhouse fiddler," and a "toilet-bowl dribbler." But destroying a dollhouse and drinking from the toilet isn't even the half of it: during the morning hours, the cat wreaks havoc by digging in a potted plant and scratching the sofa. After the cat is unceremoniously dropped outside, it stalks the neighborhood and gets in trouble with a mama squirrel.

Tracy (I Am Picky) structures the story with repeated commentary on the feline's day. "What a lovely" and "happy day" follow the cat's morning antics. Later, readers learn the cat has had a "wild day" outdoors and a "stressful day" after some early-evening storms. Small, who nails the body language, animates the cat's adventures with nimble lines, soft pastels, and plenty of action, and child readers will delight in the cat's naughty behavior. The end of the day finds the cat seeking the warm pillow of the child's bed: "Moonlight cuddler. All-night snuggler." Unconditional love is at the receiving end of a day's mischief, something to which human children can relate. This, after all, makes for a "very good day." --Julie Danielson, reviewer and copyeditor

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