CHATTAHOOCHEE CATS

Two kittens move to a new home and make new friends in Guberman’s children’s novella.

Young felines Meriwether and Camille live with their mother, Pearl, and their siblings. After their brothers and sisters are adopted,Pearl, Camille, and Meriwether move with their human owners to Chattahoochee, Florida. There, they live in a new barn and become involved in various adventures. Guberman’s book has some strong sections early on, such as a sequence in which a river’s fast current whisks the kittens away until a river keeper saves them by extending a tree branch: “Using all their strength, the kittens catch the branch and hold onto its rough bark.” However, things become distractingly fantastical in the book’s latter half. Up to that point, the narrative sticks to semirealistic scenarios, such as Meriwether and Camille’s befriending a cat on a leash, encountering a dog who loves chasing cats, and having a play date with a new feline pal. Even a section involving a bear cub lost from the zoo feels of a piece with what’s been established so far. But after that, the kittens travel to Atlanta, board a blimp at a zoo, and end up in the Amazon rainforest, where they meet an alligator with a rainbow coming out of his mouth—which the kittens use to return to Georgia, where they start attending school. The problem with this story isn’t the inclusion of fantastical elements, per se, but the abruptness with which they’re introduced relatively late in the story. Overall, the story feels convoluted and confusing; indeed, it could have easily been three separate books. Mitchell’s cartoon line drawings at the start of each chapter clearly represent the story’s events.

A disorienting and inconsistent tale of animal friendships.