Willems’s third Cat the Cat book might be the best one yet. Playing on children’s fondness for making animal sounds, Cat the Cat asks Hound the Hound, Chick the Chick and Cow the Cow what their respective sounds are. Children will delight in offering up woofs, peeps and mooos in response and will likely be tickled by Bunny the Bunny’s baffled expression when asked for his sound. What does a bunny say, after all? The restrained, satisfying conclusion never answers this question. Instead, with an inspired page turn true to the author’s genius for pacing, the recto page reads, “Sounds like…” leading to the next page opening’s resolution, “somebody needs a hug!” A group hug illustrates this text, and then a wordless picture on the copyright page shows all of the characters sitting down to a picnic of milk, dog biscuits, tea and fruit. Vibrantly colored digital art delivers the clean, animation-like style that fans expect while packing a lot of narrative and expressive punch. This book is the cat’s meow. (Picture book/early reader. 0-7)
