Patches Finds a New Home

After Patches gives birth to her kittens outdoors, she hides them inside a hollow log. But they outgrow it, and a hungry fox takes notice, so the mother returns with her litter to the house where she had once happily resided. However, it is uninhabited now, and the cats are forced to take shelter in another home down the road, where at first they are not welcome. In time, they ingratiate themselves with the aloof, virtually unseen human dweller, and an ordinary tale smoothly reaches its conclusion. Miller's sweet but listlessly conventional watercolors depict the action as if from an innocuously safe distance; faces aren't character ized and details aren't palpable, an apt complement to the rather colorless narrative voice. Ages 5-9. (May)