cover image The Amazing Hamweenie

The Amazing Hamweenie

Patty Bowman. Philomel, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-25688-2

Newcomer Bowman’s spidery ink-and-watercolor drawings have a slightly offhand feeling, just right for her portrait of a narcissistic cat and his owner. She’s a girl in a neat school uniform who pushes Hamweenie around in a perambulator and includes him in tea parties. But Hamweenie wants more: he “dreams of grandeur and stardom, of being loved the world over and idolized by children.” (A parade float, admiring crowds, and a huge Macy’s-style Hamweenie balloon give a general idea of the adulation Hamweenie is looking for.) Bowman uses the picture-versus-text device to emphasize the yawning chasm between Hamweenie’s expectations and his actual circumstances. “His living conditions are atrocious,” she writes, as Hamweenie lounges about reading a magazine called Hollywood Gossip and munching on a bag of Fishy Snacks. The setup seems to call for Hamweenie to escape and find the fame and fortune he wishes for—or else, perhaps, to encounter humiliation and return to his perambulator—but neither happens. It’s just a description of the “agonizing abuse” of Hamweenie’s day-to-day life. Still, cat owners will appreciate the all-too-accurate feline portrait. Ages 3–7. Agent: Alia Hanna Habib, McCormick & Williams. (Oct.)