A CAT CALLED AMNESIA

When a stray but well-kept cat turns up at the Bleekers' summer place not long before they have to return to their petless city apartment, their father gives the four children an ultimatum: find the owner or have the SPCA put it away. The rest of their vacation (and about 100 pages of text) is given over to a painstaking survey of the neighborhood and nearby town, and to observation of the cat itself who seems to answer to Amnesia. Readers, as well as participants, will begin to drag by the time a woman in a trailer park reacts so violently to Amnesia that the children figure she's a murderer and the cat a witness. But no, she's only allergic, and after a few misunderstandings are straightened out it is she who suggests trying the boats--where sure enough a frantic family is so grateful for the return of their pet Ebenezer that they reward the children with a ride home by water. Forget it.