A cat plays a delightful make-believe game in the clever, charmingly illustrated The Rare Bird by Caldecott Honor-winner Elisha Cooper (Big Cat, Little Cat).
In pictorial vignettes, an unnamed feline pet imagines himself in a different life. Cooper's action-filled watercolor illustrations open with a cat tumbling through and poring over picture books. The cat begins his voyage in an ordinary urban living room: "The Rare Bird flew through the forest,/ flying so fast he knocked the leaves off the trees." (The cat runs and leaps over the bookcase, knocking the books to the ground.) Next, the bird "flies under the splashing waterfall" (an occupied and in-use shower), "and into the gurgling pond" (a toilet in which the cat is fully immersed, only ears peeking over the seat).
Careful reading of the full-color spreads and the small, sketchy black, blue, and white pictures will likely elicit chuckles as kids recognize the disconnect between images and words. His "neatened nest" is a cardboard box, "bugs" are toys, and a "rock" looks suspiciously like the dog from Cooper's Emma Full of Wonders. The Rare Bird eventually takes a nap, "and as he slept.../ he dreamed": a bird with the cat's coloring flies with two other birds through intensely blue and green landscapes, until all three land in a comforting nest. When the cat awakens, he listens to his child owner read a picture book about more "animals in the great wide world" and he transforms into a "small and sleepy elephant." With close inspection and repeated readings, imaginations are likely to soar. --Melinda Greenblatt, freelance reviewer