Marmalade and the Magic Birds

Debut author/illustrator Harris produced these illustrations on a computer, but the pictures resemble cut-paper collage accented with splashes of watercolor, and his complementary colors vibrate with intensity on every spread. Marmalade the cat lives in a world filled with scarlet opera houses, aquamarine jalopies and lime-colored birds with lavender wings. But that world turns topsy-turvy when Ertax the Tanfastic, a devious magician, steals Marmalade's birds to use in one of his tricks. The feline chases the magician through the city, but Ertax eludes him by shape-shifting into a tree, a house, a car and back into a magician again. After a confrontation in the theater, Marmalade helps Ertax find an alternative solution to stealing his birds. Though the author delivers a na ve, rather wooden text ("" `You won't stop me that easily!' retorted the tall stranger""), the artwork and the plucky, resourceful hero carry the tale. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)