Nat the Cat's Sunny Smile

PreS-K—Children follow Nat the Cat as she tries to collect her friends, Hugo Hare and Billy Goat, for a picnic. When they decline because they're in bad moods, Nat sweetly pats them on their heads and continues along, humming a song. But on her way to the meadow, she wonders, "What sort of a picnic…will it be,/with nobody there to share it with me?" Now feeling gloomy herself, Nat stops at a lake and flops on the ground, uninterested in the contents of her picnic basket. Then Hugo and Billy appear, cheerfully explaining, "after you left the grump went away,/and it's all because of your smile…." The three friends munch on biscuits and cake,and they sing "Nat the Cat's Picnic Song." Words and music are included and may also be heard and downloaded at the author's website. Alborough's paintings, with rounded figures and spare backgrounds, feature soft colors and textures. The rhyming text is well paced, with choppy verse for the complaints and be-bop rhythms in the upbeat sections. Word choice encourages preschoolers' vocabulary development: "dingy," "dreary," "hamper," "brood."—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA