Friend or Foe?

PreS-Gr 2—Every evening, a mouse creeps to the roof and looks up at a cat. Every evening, the cat climbs the palace stairs and looks down at the mouse. The cat cannot leave, but one day the mouse discovers a way into the palace. The mouse thinks for a long time—should he enter? "He was wondering if—after all those hours of looking at each other—he and the cat were friends." The mouse decides that his desire for friendship makes the risk worthwhile, but as he creeps through the palace, his mind spins: "Was the cat friend or foe?" With great suspense, the mouse approaches the cat, who is in her usual evening perch, looking down at the house below. The cat is so startled by the mouse that she falls—safely—out the window and is adopted by the woman in the house. Their places reversed, the two still see each other every evening. The cat looks up and the mouse looks down, but still the mouse wonders, "Friend or foe?" The spare graphite and ink wash illustrations, highlighted digitally with tiny pops of color, give the story a gravitas that fits its existential questioning. While the title query is never definitively answered, the characters and drama provide a satisfying reading experience.