TELLING TIME WITH BIG MAMA CAT

Harper’s picture book features a day in the life of burly old Big Mama Cat as she eats, naps, shreds furniture, while an astonishing number of household clocks mark the time. Harper’s text displays an enjoyable amount of drollery (“The sun reaches the new chair at 11:00. It’s off-limits to me—but I can’t resist. I’m helped down at 11:05”). The Mosers’ watercolors are spectacular, drenched in subdued colors and elegant details, and getting the cat’s gestures just right. Moments of coyness (the book titles in the house: Kitty In the Rye, The Milkman Cometh, etc.) can’t mar this project, which includes a fold-out page of a clock with movable hands so readers can keep time with Big Mama’s day. (Picture book. 4-8)