Pumpkin-colored Mimi is not a cat that “comes running to whoever coos Kitty, kitty
,” but when she stumbles on a Dada performance, she decides she wants the artist, Mr. Dada, to be her human. She leaves him her own “ready-mades” (which include a hairball and false teeth), performs a caterwauling sound poem, and rips up his diary to create a Magnetic Poetry–style poem with echoes of William Carlos Williams (“I have/ spilled/ the/ peas/ that were/ in/ the/ glass/ bowl/ and which/ you were/ probably/ saving/ for dinner”). It's not until after Mr. Dada lobs the same complaints at Mimi that he himself received from a cantankerous neighbor—calling her “a stupendous nuisance. A primitive force of destruction!”—that he recognizes her kindred spirit. Jackson pays homage to Dadaists with a richly chaotic montage of newsprint, paintings, fonts, and graphic design elements, and her text is equally adept at encapsulating the anarchic nature of the movement (an author's note offers background about Dadaism). It's a book for readers who like a challenge, but the message that “art can be anything” comes through clearly. Ages 6–9. (Apr.)
