Escape from Hat

Screenwriter Kline and artist Taylor collaborate in this funny, originally self-published saga meshing fantasy and farce and pitting good against evil. Cecil Bean’s assigned black cat, Millikin, and rabbit, Leek, are respectively responsible for the boy’s swings of bad and good luck. But things run amok when Leek disappears into the top hat of a swindling magician and surfaces in the land of Hat, home to Millikin and fellow nefarious felines and to other (quickly multiplying) banished rabbits. Learning that a tower in the cats’ fortress holds magic that can return him and his peers to their humans, Leek and another rabbit set out to find it. On their madcap journey, they encounter a traveling minstrel mouse, a potbellied pig (king of the Miniature Potbellies), and a cave monster who’s afraid of the dark. Meanwhile, Cecil embarks on his own risky quest to procure the itinerant magician’s hat in hopes of bringing Leek home. Distinct, droll voices and comedic wordplay help maintain a breakneck pace, while vibrant pictures of the wide-eyed rabbits and their dastardly counterparts radiate an energetic cartoon sensibility. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. [em](Mar.) [/em]