Cat Knit

Grant (Little Bird’s Bad Word) pairs wryly understated storytelling with subtly funny cartooning in a story of friendship, sharing, and change, featuring a roly-poly cat with big, yellow-green eyes. Cat is already friends with Girl, but after Girl brings home a ball of red yarn, a new relationship is born. “The two of them were inseparable,” writes Grant as he shows Cat and Yarn playing tic-tac-toe, zipping through the snow on a toboggan, and building a snowman (with Yarn as the head). But Girl “also wanted to play with Yarn,” and when his playmate returns as a Cat-size sweater, Cat realizes that his friend “had changed.” Outdoors in the snow, Cat wriggles out of his sweater and abandons it on a branch, eventually realizing that “warming up to something new takes time.” Grant revels in Cat’s tendency toward crotchetiness (some of his grimaces could give Grumpy Cat a run for her money), and the book is equally rewarding whether readers take what Cat learns to heart or just giggle over the ups and downs of this slightly knotty friendship. Ages 4–7. Agent: Steven Chudney, Chudney Agency. (Oct.)