PreS-K Frankie is a ginger cat who earns his keep in his human family's hardware store at night. Whether emptying one wastebasket to get a fish skeleton, spotting a mouse behind six hammers, or chasing his quarry up and down seven ladders, the apron-clad feline is hard at work. His nine bosses are an extended family, humorously shown in single beds pushed side by side. As he chases the mouse across their covers, they wake and exclaim, "Be quiet, Frankie!" and remind him, "Some of us have to work in the morning." Nonetheless, they spot the mouse, shout directions, and praise Frankie for chasing it out the cat door. With his job done and the store in disarray, he yawns 10 big yawns. Children next see him by day, sleeping in the store windowoblivious to outside dogs and a nearby mousedreaming of a hammock in the tropics. Taylor uses digital photography for the full-color art, with paint cans, scattered nails, and assorted tools lending authenticity to the hardware-store setting. Both Frankie and the mouse appear to be real animals. The pace picks up considerably as the mouse scurries for safety with Frankie in pursuit. There's a lot to see (and count) in this unusual book."Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.
In this counting book, cat Frankie ostensibly works at a hardware store at night ("He empties one wastebasket...He cleans two counters," and so on), but the quasi-photorealistic digital art tells the truth (he upends the trash can, knocks things off the counters, etc.). The book passes quite pleasantly but would have been better served by a sharper ending.
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