I Won't Eat That

K-Gr 2— A persnickety cat refuses to eat cat food and searches for a tastier alternative by asking other animals what they eat. Each creature's answer, however, comes with a warning. Turtle's worm diet is wiggly. The rabbits Fox eats are bouncy. Chimps eat ants that bite, and Lion eats zebras that are too big. Elephant eats dry grass and the "phosphorescent phytoplankton" that Whale eats is just "too weird." When a mouse arrives and asks, "What does a cat eat?" however, Cat discovers the perfect food and offers its own warning to the little creature. Neal's mixed-media artwork depicts a large orange cat full of personality, viewed initially sprawled across a spread frowning at its food dish. Next the feline kicks the dish away while it prances off, nose in the air, to seek better fare. Each time it approaches a new animal, Cat conveys, cumulatively, all the reasons why it rejects the other animals' food. The large illustrations often present face-to-face views of Cat and the animals it encounters. Whale and Elephant are so large they appear in parts over two pages. Although Fox and Lion chase their prey, no actual capture is visible, and only Turtle is seen with a meal in its mouth. Even Mouse seems to be successfully running for safety on the endpapers.