Pounce! Max Attacks by Kathi Appelt

Max is a cute kitty, with four soft little paws.
But at the end of each paw are five sharp little claws.

And Max know just what to do with them...

MAX ATTACKS!

IN A BOWL OF WATER BRIMMING...

FISHES! LOTS OF FISHES SWIMMING.

But just as Max get poised to plunge a clawed paw...

Wait! Is that a lizard on the window? Max whirls away from the fish bowl and leaps, landing spreadeagled on the window screen.

The family watchdog stops the attack, but cannot save the window plant as they both come down. Max leaps away Scot free, while the dog is tagged for the downed drapes.

MAX, ONE.
DOG, NONE.

Max's claws may be retractable,
But Max himself is quite distractible.

Max unhooks each claw from the screen and goes back to the fish bowl. But just as he's about to snag a fish, his toy catnip birdie on a string flaps by! He pounces, his claws penetrate, but the birdie swoops away into the dirty clothes basket. Max turns on a dime. That bird won't escape this time. Hey! Max is the predator. This is what his claws are for!

UP! UP! UH-OH!

WHERE DID THAT BIRDIE GO?

Oh, there it is, in the dirty clothes basket! And what are those stinky things in the basket? Ooooh!
Socks rock! Max pounces.

SOCKS, NONE.

MAX, NINETY-ONE!

Full of bravado, Max goes back to the fish bowl.

The fish are swimming, still accessible.
This time will Max's attack be successful?

Or will little Max wind up all wet? Suffice it to say, for Kathi Appelt's latest, Max Attacks (Atheneum Books, 2019), no goldfish were harmed in the production of this picture book. Despite his prowess at attacks and his claw-ful paws, kitten Max fails as a carnivore but succeeds as a charmer, in the Newbery-winning Appelt's adorable rhyming cat tale for young readers, while illustrator Penelope Dullaghan creates an irresistibly lovable striped kitty who switches his twitchy tale, licks his small whiskers, and pauses before pouncing like any proper kitten would do. With its big bold illustrations shown from varying prospectives and its intriguing rhymes, this one is the cat's pajamas for reading aloud to one or a group. Puns Kirkus Reviews, "Max's actions should win plenty of accolades: Max, a million; readers a million-plus."  More Max, Ms. Appelt!

Kathi Appelt was the winner of a John Newbery Medal for her brilliant middle-grade novel, The Underneath (See my review here.)