Calamitous Catitude! Bad Cat by Nicola O'Byrne

Fluffykins is on a tear, one of those calamitous rampages that cats sometimes indulge in!

When a big orange tabby discovers a vase of flowers near the edge of a table, there's only one likely outcome--

CRASH! SPLASH! TINKLE-TINKLE!

"FLUFFIKINS! THAT WASN'T VERY NICE.

DON'T WALK AWAY! I THINK YOU NEED TO APOLOGIZE!"

Fluffikins spots a basketful of colorful yarn balls, just ready for knitting.

But not for long!

No apologies are forthcoming as Fluffikins continues his cantankerous rounds. He rips the upholstery on the sofa, stretches out territorially on the computer keyboard, unreels the toilet tissue in the bathroom, and scales the blinds on the window..., that is, just before he goes potty on the floor.

It's time for some kitty timeout in the great outdoors.

"NOW GO AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

Fluffikins' owner has had it. Fluffi is one housekeeping cat-astrophe after another. He cools his paws in the great outdoors while his owner cleans up.

But, wait! Now it's raining repentant cats outdoors--with Fluffikins' desperate, sad, and soggy face at the window!

MEOOOW!

One might expect that about now Fluffikins will morph into an apologetic, purring bundle of fur, but, true to type, once inside, he makes a beeline toward the goldfish bowl..., in this hilarious account of a truly bad cat day. Any one who has raised a cat from cute kittenhood to more cunny catitude will have to laugh at Fluffykins in O'Byrne's latest, Bad Cat! (Candlewick Press, 2021).

The noted O'Byrne's superbly comic artwork is the perfect foil for her one-sided dialogue with a rip-roaring cat, one who can't resist tampering with the lettering on his own title page. Readers who have cats will relish this portrayal of the sly mischief and charm of these mercurial mood-shifting pets, in the illustrator's outsized full- and double-page focus on this rambunctious feline. Although perfect for giggly preschool read-alouds, the brief text and plentitude of visual cues make this story a great choice for emerging readers as well.

Things That Go Bump in the Night: Small Blue and the Deep Dark Night by Jon Davis

SMALL BLUE THOUGHT OF CREEPY THINGS.

"GREMLINS AND GOBLINS, WITH EMPTY, RUMBLING BELLIES,

LICKING THEIR LIPS, WAITING FOR ME IN THE DARK!"

"BIG BROWN! BIG BROWN!" SHE CALLED.

Small Blue, a rabbity young thing, awakens in the middle of the night and thinks of terrible night visitors.

Big Brown, a rumpled sleepy-eyed brown bear, comes into her room, pats her head, and suggests that the things she imagines could just have likely been a "delightful doggies' unicycle convention!"

Little Blue doesn't think so, but when Big Brown turns on the light, there's nothing to see but her cozy room, toys scattered on the floor and books neatly shelved. Big Brown suggests they share cups of hot milk and talk about it all.

But the hall is dark, and Small Blue is sure that furry spiders and flappity bats are skulking there. Big Brown suggests perhaps a "smily spacemen's zero-gravity shindig" in progress instead.

"WELL, MAYBE..." SAID SMALL BLUE.

Big Brown hoists Little Blue to his shoulders as they head into the kitchen, where Little Blue opines that witches with warts and clacking skeletons await her. Big Brown adds an alternative: there could be ex-pirates sitting and  knitting socks at their yearly convention.

Small Blue admits that that could be true.

A flip of the light switch reveals just a homey and tidy tiled kitchen in soft chartreuse and yellow. Big Brown settles down with Little Blue in his lap, and as they sip their milk, they watch the moon and stars in the dark sky outside the window. Little Blue is getting into the spirit of things.

"MAYBE THE STARS ARE RUNNING A RELAY RACE AROUND THE MOON, WHILE THE PLANETS CHEER THEM ON," SAYS LITTLE BLUE....

From time immemorial, kids have wakened with night terrors of ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties, and all things that go bump in the night. Jon Davis' new book, Small Blue and the Deep Dark Night (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), takes a look at the flipside of the bedtime willies by suggesting that if we can conjure up scary critters, we can just as surely imagine silly stuff as well.

Davis sketches the perfect setting for this gentle tale, with his worried and wrinkly little rabbit and his rounded, rumply big brown bear, who, rather than ridiculing the youngster's imaginings, simply tops them with preposterous tall tale possibilities. The artist's backgrounds are homey and reassuring, done in a palette of pinkish browns and soft greens and grays and wiggly, broken black line, and his characters, even the imagined ones, are a bit retro, rather reminiscent of Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoon style, with just a hint of Pooh and Piglet's adventures--all calculated to banish the night terrors for young readers. This is a fine "bednight" story for young children to help keep the things that go bump in the night at bay.