TOM CAT

Despite his pointy ears, round gray paws and curved black line of a tail, Tom is unconvinced of his cathood. When his parents tell him that cats chase mice, Tom replies, "I must be an elephant!... Mice scare me!" When he plays in the mud, he decides he is a pig. And when he hangs from a tree branch, he claims to be a bat. " 'Please come down,' his father called out. 'I'm pretty sure you're a cat.' " Tom reminds his parents that they call him a "tiger" and a "silly goose"—and he is pictured with stripes and with feathers—but after unexpectedly saying "meow" one day, he acknowledges his true animal identity. In this picture book debut, magazine illustrator Woods creates Tom out of solid shapes: a black circle for his head, blue-gray circles for his body and paws, stiff linear whiskers and triangular ears. Tom resembles a diagram of his distant cartoon relative, Felix, at play on an untinted, all-white backdrop; even his shadow is a pale gray oval, and his geometrically precise body doesn't have much personality. This kitten's rigid appearance, all clean edges and opaque color, lacks the playful inventiveness of his spoken self. Ages 3-7. (May)