Cats Are Cats

This collection of 42 poems about cats may bring on purrs of satisfaction from cat-lovers. Cats who come and go ``on invisible toes,'' who ``sleep fat and walk thin,'' who ``do not wear bright yellow spats'' cavort and stretch on page after page; they preen in sunlight and walk ``through moonlight's milk.'' The poems, by such distinguished contemporary poets as John Ciardi, Karla Kuskin, Eve Merriam, Joan Aiken, Nancy Willard and Valerie Worth, are nicely varied and challenging. Young's charcoal-and-pastel drawings of the intriguing cats are elegant in their simplicity and design; the spare backgrounds on uniformly yellow-brown pages focus attention on the ``crisp and clean'' whiskers and the ``hypnotic eyes'' of those entrancing, dancing cats. All ages. (Oct.)