“So I won’t pull her tail / Nor drive her away, / But Kitty and I / Very gently will play…” The “I” in Schoenherr’s free adaptation of three nursery rhymes is a sportive, mischievous mouse that Kitty pretends to ignore until making a quick feint to grab the wee beasty. The book’s text ebbs and flows to “I Love Little Pussy,” “Hickory, Dickory, Dock” and “Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo,” though surely it is the artwork that will hold the attention of the young. Schoenherr’s fine and sure line work could have become antiseptic, but maintains the dignified playfulness of a china doll. And operating inconspicuously under the frolicsome game of cat-and-mouse is just a hint of gathering menace betrayed by Kitty’s limpid, chartreuse eyes. Smart Mouse knows you can push a cat only so far—“I’ll never vex her / Nor make her displeased. / For Kitty can’t bear / To be worried or teased”—before playtime becomes dinnertime. (Picture book. 2-4)
