Cat, Mouse and Moon

As the watchful moon rises over the nighttime landscape, Cat stalks his prey on a hunt through the dark, in an evocative, gently suspenseful tale.

PreSchool-Grade 2-In this slight mood piece, shadowy images lurk as Cat creeps out into the night to hunt by Moon's yellow light. Hillenbrand's smoky illustrations match the text, but neither the story nor the art will hold its intended picture-book audience. Despite some strong visual images, such as the Cat's prey reflected in its eyes, and some well-crafted descriptive language (he "flows like black ink along the lake path" and "Sun is hunched at the edge of the world like a golden lion"), Cat, Mouse and Moon is ultimately ephemeral.
Harriett Fargnoli, Great Neck Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"It is night and Cat is out. Moon is in the sky, and in Cat's eye, and on the rippling surface of the lake." Sentence by carefully wrought sentence, the suspense builds as Cat hunts down Mouse and almost bags himself a tasty midnight snack. Hillenbrand's (Traveling to Tondo) smudged watercolors in soft shades of gray and purple, highlighted with flashes of the moon's yellow, capture the still beauty and danger of night. Cat, a marauding feline, is at daybreak transformed into a docile lapcat. While first-time author Powell establishes the mood of the story, the narrative drive is not altogether palpable-the prose takes itself a little too seriously. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4-7. Prowling around the countryside on a moonlit night, a black cat stalks a mouse and almost catches it. At the critical moment, the moon comes out from behind a cloud and warns Mouse of Cat's presence. If the lyrical text finds high drama in Mouse's close brush with Cat's claws, it also shares a bit of irony in the contrast between Cat's vision of himself as a mighty hunter, a Night Cat, and his readiness to demand his meal at the nearby farmhouse, where he turns into Day Cat, sleepy and domestic. Hillenbrand captures both moods to perfection in his softly shaded, full-color artwork. A mood book with just enough drama to hold the story hour crowd. Carolyn Phelan