DINAH! A CAT ADVENTURE

In this visually accomplished but fitfully told debut, Nishimura introduces readers to a cat who is loved perhaps a bit too well by her family. On the sly, Father, Mother and Boy all feed Dinah fatty treats (milk, eggs, even cookies), and the tiny kitty soon balloons into a furry blimp. When Dinah slips away from her family one day—she's so fat that she literally rolls down the rooftops—various onlookers mistake her for a scavenging raccoon, a hairy watermelon and, when she mingles with a flock of sheep, a predatory tiger. The appearance of a teeth-bearing dog threatens a very dark turn of events ("You look very different from the cats I know, but you are a cat," he growls), but the family appears in the nick of time to take Dinah home. In Nishimura's fluid, naïf drawing style, Dinah looks both sympathetic and comical; an enormous, rotund body dwarfs the poor kitty's head, but her innocence abroad is endearing. The book falters, however, because Nishimura describes more than she needs to and gives her heroine more motivation than necessary; Dinah is not only a fat cat, but she doesn't realize she's a cat ("I thought I was Princess. And Baby. And Friend," she tells the dog). The author also leaves a thread hanging—the humans responsible for Dinah's condition get off scot-free. Ages 3-6. (Apr.)