PIZZA KITTENS

This fable of “Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Table Manners” will have kids giggling at the familiar home dinnertime fiascos. Mom has a fit when her three rambunctious kittens leave the table a mess. “Oh, no, not salad!” So the next night Dad cooks peas—and another dinner turns into disaster of spilled drinks and flying food. The third night Dad makes something special that is the solution—PIZZA! Watercolor-and-ink illustrations depict the upright cats with frizzley, sketchy lines and bulging yellow eyes. Skillful compositions stage the action against soft, celery-colored paper with balloon comments/asides adding sparks of spontaneity to the large-type text. Voake’s sprightly, quick-sketch style borders on caricatures here and is not as charming as her previous Ginger (1997). The design is attractive, with one flaw: the fuchsia color of the copyright page (in this case facing the title page) is so intense the small type with the CIP information is not readable. These kids in kitten fur behave just like, well . . . kids, and there just might be a chance that their feline manners will rub off on real children, although the message seems to favor caving in to the picky eater. (Picture book. 3-5)