Thumpy Feet by Betsy Lewin (review)

"Here comes Thumpy Feet!" announces an unseen narrator as a big, stripy orange cat lumbers happily onto the scene, the kitty's oversized, pink-toed paws "thumpy thump"-ing their way onto the page. The wide-eyed feline next discovers a bowl of "foodie food" that is so delicious he smacks his mouth over the course of two two-page spreads as he gobbles it down. This segues into a need for some "licky lick"-ing, as an impromptu bath takes place next to the food bowl, until he spies a stuffed mouse and pounces on it, flipping it into the air again and again. All this playing tuckers out the big guy, so with a "YAAAWWWNY yawn!" he nods off to sleep, snoozing away until the final pages when a ball of red yarn reenergizes him into action. This is more a brief, euphonious day-in-the-life list than a full-fledged story, but the repetition and kid-friendly wordplay are amusingly clever. Lewin is a master of the casually drawn but acutely observed feline form and her watercolor, lanky, furry fellow (visually a goofier cousin of The Aristocats' Thomas O'Malley) is equally winning whether munching his chow (eyes closed in bliss), licking those hard-to-reach spots, or slumbering away with all fours in the air. A clean, snowy backdrop keeps all the attention on the friendly marmalade cat, and the large images (thickly outlined in black) gracefully utilize the space of each spread. This would work equally well one-on-one or with a crowd, perhaps paired with Nikki McClure's similarly minimal How to Be a Cat (BCCB 6/13) or, for a slightly older audience, Karla Kuskin's So What's It Like to Be a Cat? (BCCB 9/05), also illustrated by Lewin.