BIG CAT DREAMING

Wild (Old Pig, 1996, etc.) spins sugar in this story, further saturated by Spudvilas's oil paintings. Two children visit their grandmother and her cat and dog. The girl, Naomi, wonders aloud if the cat, twitching in its sleep, dreams. Her brother, who narrates, suggests that it is dreaming of fish and meatballs. Grandma chimes in: ``I think cats dream of when they were kittens . . . firecracker kittens, full of fizz and hiss,'' and ``dogs dream of when they were pups . . . cheeky-tailed pups, digging here, digging there.'' So it goes—through Grandma's dream, a game of hide-and-seek, and some startling treetop acrobatics—all the way to a predictable bit of near-mystical communication from the wise old cat. A dream that fades when the last page is turned, unlikely to be summoned again. (Picture book. 3-6)