TABITHA AND FRITZ TRADE PLACES

It’s the getaway that’s everything Fritz and Tabitha want and need…until it isn’t.

Tabitha, an orange cat from the suburbs, and Fritz, an elephant with a yen for travel, meet on the website Lair-bnb. Tabitha needs to get out of her little brick house—and away from Claudia, her little human, who’s a bit aggressive with the makeovers. Fritz has had enough of the herd for a while. Fritz loves the “watering hole” (a swimming pool) that Claudia takes him to after his long flight. Tabitha’s overjoyed to find some “family in the area” (a pair of cheetahs). (Throughout, readers are treated to Stansfield’s visual representations of the animals’ misconceptions.) But soon the excitement of the swap wears off. Fritz nearly cracks a tusk on a giant fake doughnut outside a bakery, and Tabitha’s mouse pizza horrifies Fritz’s herd. After a disaster when Fritz mistakes Claudia’s birthday party for his and a painful run-in with a hippo for Tabitha, both think an early swap back is a good idea—but their thank-you gifts to each other indicate warm feelings on both sides. Frawley’s tongue-in-cheek tale is told entirely in Lair-bnb messages between the two vacationers as each describes their trip to their counterpart. Starting with the endpapers, Stansfield’s bright cartoons offer plenty of little background giggles as well as plenty of foreground laughs.

A satisfying spin on the trading-places trope.