cover image The Cat Who Wouldn't Come Inside

The Cat Who Wouldn't Come Inside

Cynthia von Buhler, . . Houghton, $16 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-618-56314-2

This cumulative story, told through staged photographs of an elaborate dollhouse set with characters created from clay, concerns a feral feline who is gradually coaxed into domestic life. "Come inside, kitty!" urges the genteel red-headed narrator when she spots a cat shivering on her snow-covered porch. This invitation, along with the response—"The cat ran away"—becomes the book's two-part refrain as the patient lady offers an ever-growing number of incentives to her visitor. As the list grows to "some warm milk, a plate of tuna, a catnip mouse, a soft rug, a ball of yarn, and a cozy armchair," the cat's defenses seem to melt (the yarn ball sends him into a Zen-like contentment). But he still insists on domesticity on his own terms; not until the narrator turns her porch into an open-air parlor does the cat settle in for good. Von Buhler's (They Called Her Molly Pitcher ) 3-D settings and characters work considerable magic, but the photographs themselves unfortunately aren't up to the level of her modeling craftsmanship (amateurish blurring mars many of the pictures). Her feline hero possesses a wide repertoire of expressions, which makes him an effective comedic foil for the more conventional doll-like narrator, whose earnest, unflappable visage never changes. Readers with dollhouses and kitties of their own may well be entranced. Ages 2-5. (Sept.)