JEREMY KOOLOO
by Tim Mahurin & illustrated by Tim Mahurin
Jeremy Kooloo, the cat, loves milk. He happens across a set of full glasses of the stuff and tucks right in. A whole carton of milk appears, which also goes down Jeremy's hatch. Then the feline slips between the sheets to snooze the gluttony off. This ABC requires some guidance but Mahurin's Botero-inspired illustrations, for all their roly-poliness, grab and take hold—the paintings have all the warmth and mesmerizing qualities of a hearth fire and there's no getting away from them. While the children are captured by particular images, adults can explain how the flashy words at the top of the page add up alphabetically. A book idiosyncratic enough, beguiling enough, to become a staple of the ABC canon. (Picture book. 2-5)