Nini Here and There (review)

Cats aren't generally big fans of travel, and the eponymous Nini is no exception: when her house is thrown into packing turmoil, she sulks, thinking she's being left behind, but it's almost worse when she's bundled into the carrier. After a sequence of dreams about voyaging, she finds herself at a new place, a country house that, upon inspection, proves to be rather a nice place to be. Nini is sufficiently authentic in her felinity (cat-owners will recognize her stubborn insistence on sitting atop the object of human interest) to make this an enjoyable cat story in its own right, but it's also a comforting tale about travel and moving for little ones in general, with compact matter-of-fact sentences softened by descriptive touches. Lobel is the mistress of saturated hues in watercolor (here touched with gouache), whether it be in the geometric view of the city house façade, the softer organic shapes of the country, or the chaotic rainbow of packing preparation that bridges the two. Gray tabby Nini is depicted with almost photorealistic detail, even as she's "bouncing on the back of an elephant" in her dreamscape, and her closeups looking directly at the viewer add intimacy. This is a gentle tale of voyage and homecoming that will entice stay-at-homes as well as travelers.