Cat Napped! by Leeza Hernandez (review)

An inquisitive gray cat leaves her apartment and settles down on a comfy yellow chair in the back of a red pickup truck on the street. When the truck takes off, the frightened cat cowers and then catapults itself out of the truck, injuring its paw. A passer-by finds the kitty and takes her to the animal shelter, while the cat’s owner, a little girl, searches for her missing pet. A call to the shelter helps reunite the pair, and the gray cat happily returns home for a snack and a snooze with the relieved little girl. The compact rhyming verse (“Shake cat. Quake cat./ There must be some mistake cat”), the simplicity of the tale, and the sweet-faced cat will make this a winner for the preschool storytime crowd. Hernandez’s illustrations, drawn in pencil and then digitally collaged with textures that were originally hand-painted on paper, are sunny and orderly. The pale gray, wide-eyed, swooshy-tailed kitty is as cute as can be, and the caramel-skinned little girl with her fluffy pigtails of curly brown hair is an equally adorable protagonist. Add this to a cat-themed story hour or perhaps share before a cozy nap session, preferably with a furry feline friend.