Time to Move On: Ship In A Bottle by Andrew Prahin

CAT AND MOUSE LIVED TOGETHER. BUT THERE WERE PROBLEMS.

Mouse wanted to lie in a warm sunbeam and she wanted to eat gingersnaps. Cat wanted only one thing--to eat Mouse. Their desires were at cross purposes. It was an impasse.

But Mouse has a plan. On a sunny windowsill he finds an ornamental ship-in-a-bottle, fills it with gingersnaps and crawls inside to wait. As he expected, Cat pounces at it with both paws.

TINK-TINK!

BLOOP!

The bottle falls off the windowsill and splashes into the river below. It's a bon voyage launch as Mouse enjoys the view and nibbles on a gingersnap, but not for long

It seems seagulls like gingershaps, too, and Mouse drops her cookie and is forced to squeeze into the safety of the bottle as they sail downriver toward a port on the banks of a meadow, where she makes friends with nice rabbit. But when she shares a gingersnap with him, she discovers that he has a large family who ALL like gingersnaps!

Mouse has to shove off from shore. His gingersnaps are gone. His stomach is rumbling, and so is the sky. A storm sets in and Mouse is forced to disassemble the ship's sail to make a stopper for the bottle, and when the wind and rain cease, Mouse has to remove the ship's rudder to use as a paddle to reach shore. He was tired and hungry, and this voyage had not been what he expected.

MOUSE WAS MET BY A CHIPMUNK. "I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE GINGERSNAPS," HE TELLS HIM.

Chipmunk goes away and returns with a bunch of berries, and everyone seemed friendly.

IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, MOUSE MET ALL SORTS OF NEW FRIENDS.

THERE WERE NO GINGERSNAPS, BUT MOUSE DISCOVERED FRENCH FRIES WHEN SOME NICE SEAGULLS INVITED HER TO DINNER.

Meanwhile the cat (remember the cat?) still waits mournfully on the same windowsill.

It's a case of "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude" in Andrew Prahin's little parable of finding your place, Ship in a Bottle (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2021).

This is a folkloric tale that suggests with gently humor that sometimes you just have to "go where the weather suits your clothes," and that even if the voyage may be rough, berries can be as sweet as gingersnaps in a place where you really belong.

Raves Kirkus Review, "Delightful, pastel-colored cartoon illustrations beguile, competently suggesting place, atmosphere, and emotional heft; their varied presentation in full spreads and softly outlined panels very ably drives the text. Time spent in this bottle is well spent."