Kitty Kourage Akademy: Miss Hazeltine's Home for Shy and Fearful Cats by Alicia Potter

WHEN MISS HAZELTINE OPENED HER HOME FOR SAD AND FEARFUL CATS, SHE DIDN'T KNOW IF CATS WOULD COME.

BUT COME THEY DID.

Concerned and disgruntled owners soon brought their crestfallen kitties for cat therapy.

"HE'S AFRAID OF MICE!" ONE SAID.

"WON'T PURR!... SCARED OF BIRDS... AFRAID OF EVERYTHING!" THEY REPORT.

But Miss Hazeltine is undaunted, a cat therapist who has just the program, even for poor timid little Crumbs, who dashes to cower, hiding his head under the parlor carpet, virtually CATatonic!

Miss Hazeltine sets up sessions for cognitive-behavioral therapy for common cat anxieties--owls, scary night noises, and that big feline bugaboo, the BROOM.

Even Crumbs makes progress. But will he ever be truly brave?

Then one day Miss Hazeltine runs out of milk. For a group of neurotic cats, that is a serious situation, and she sets out for the nearest dairy farm to fill a couple of milk buckets for her patients. But it grows cloudy and dark and Miss Hazeltine takes a spill off the path. All the kitties peer out the windows and worry.

THEY HADN'T HAD THE LESSON ON WHAT TO DO WHEN THE LADY THEY LOVED WENT MISSING!

But in the best tradition of timid heroes, Crumbs is the one who leads the rescue, in Alicia Potter's captivating tale of kitty rehab, Miss Hazeltine's Home for Shy and Fearful Cats (Alfred A Knopf, 2015). Artist Birgitta Sif contributes her unusual style of humorous illustrations portraying Miss Hazeltine's meditation sessions and yoga poses for her cat clients and immersion therapy with the broom. As Kirkus Reviews says, "Sif's quirky, pencil-drawn, digitally colored illustrations... perfectly paired with the text... add visual interest and a charming freshness."

A clever narration and comic art come together like a cat and cream in this witty kitty tale that is just the cat's meow.