Clever Cat

Best known for his wordless picture books, Collington (The Angel and the Soldier Boy; The Tooth Fairy) adds a clipped, comical narrative to his meticulously detailed art in this wry volume starring a family cat. One morning, Mrs. Ford finds her pet Tibs a bother and wishes aloud that he could feed himself. Fed up with not being fed, Tibs takes her suggestion to heart and a transformation results. Collington shows him as he rises onto his hind legs, reaches into the cupboard, opens his own can of food and proceeds to eat with a spoon. The Fords proclaim him ""a clever cat"" and hand him a house key and ATM card so he can buy his own food, too. Tibs's cleverness seems to know no bounds. He dines at an outdoor caf , shops at a toy store and relaxes in a movie theater. But his carefree lifestyle comes to a halt when the Fords announce that he must find a job to earn his keep. Tibs tries hard to make ends meet but his work suffers and he is fired. The artist creates empathy for the furry fellow throughout his aping of a human existence--with expressions to match--and perfectly captures feline behavior when the hero returns to a cat's life. Collington's droll pictures of this enterprising animal engaged in activities normally reserved for humans will elicit Cheshire grins from readers young and old. All ages. (Aug.)