THE VOLE BROTHERS

These critters are so hungry, they could eat a cat...or his dinner.

The rodent twins wake up in a drain pipe, craving some food. Both they and a large passing cat smell something enticing and rush to check it out. A slice of pepperoni pizza lies at the end of the curling odor trail, inside a garbage can; the cat seizes it. Disguised in a paper bag (with convenient eye holes), the voles distract the cat and make off with the slice. But before they have a chance to dig in, the plot thickens. A crow swoops down to steal the pepperoni, and a parade of red ants snaggles the slice. When the voles protest, they find their paws under ant attack! Getting something to eat seems impossible...until they spot a half-eaten doughnut, with frosting! Before they can get to it, there's that cat again, who scoops them up, one in each paw. The sound of a dinner bell gets the cat's attention, and the voles escape. They land right in a strawberry patch, just the right spot for dinner. There's not much to Schwartz's story, but her illustrations are delightful, displaying a pitch-perfect sense of comedic timing in her comic-book–influenced illustrations.