SQUASH, THE CAT

Squash the cat and his owner, a little girl named Maggie, are BFFs until Squash commits a big blunder.

While Maggie, a light-skinned child with a head of tousled reddish curls, is a bit more exuberant than nap-loving Squash, the two are nevertheless “perfect-for-each-other best friends.” Each day they share a wonderful breakfast (Squash knocks a box of doughnuts off the top of the fridge, with Maggie waiting below to catch them), and Squash puts an end to Maggie’s boring music lesson by coughing up a hairball on the minuet, to the music teacher’s horror. The giggles will only increase—along with some apprehension—when Squash mistakes Maggie’s new toy tunnel for a big snake about to devour the girl…and acts accordingly. With the tunnel now slashed to ribbons, Maggie is furious, and Squash is “a can’t-eat, can’t-sleep…can’t-face-his-Maggie kind of cat.” After several funny but sad pages depicting Squash’s reaction to Maggie’s anger, the narrator gently asserts that friendship is not perfect, and in a satisfying conclusion, the two literally and figuratively mend their rift. The colorful, sketchy, cartoonish art complements and extends the delightfully playful text that’s full of alliteration and understatement as well as engaging strings of hyphenated words that describe the protagonists. This tale would make an excellent read-aloud in small groups so that little ones can pick out details in the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Funny, clever, and heartwarming.