GOODYEAR: The City Cat

Less imaginative than Coats' other well-received books (The Oak Tree--296, C-13; Marcella and the Moon), this oft-told tale of a cat who ventures forth on an excursion of his own devising, only to return to his comfortable home, is dedicated to the memory of the author's cat of the same name. Seized with wanderlust, Goodyear goes out the window of his San Francisco apartment, climbs down a tree, and spends a happy day exploring, lap-sitting one place and another, and joining an old man for an afternoon sail in the harbor. But the man's fire reminds him of home, so he returns to the lap he loves best. The carefully detailed illustrations are visually interesting, although Coats deals best with natural settings; her architecture and interiors have subtle problems with perspective and seem cluttered in comparison to her mellow outdoor scenes. The story has often been done to better effect; Zion's Harry, the Dirty Dog comes to mind as similarly motivated but with more nourishment for the reader. Usable as an easy reader.