CAT & MOUSE: A Delicious Tale

Devotees of Hello Kitty will look twice at Oh's first book, which deals in minimalist cuteness and sleek Asian motifs and features dainty title characters, a white cat and her constant companion, a gray mouse. When Cat dresses up in a silk kimono, Mouse paints her picture. When they nap, Mouse sacks out on Cat's spherical head. But things take a turn when, during one siesta, "Cat's old friend Monkey came to visit her." As Mouse snores peacefully, the trickster gives Cat a cookbook to read. A dangerous look comes into the feline's shiny, plasticky eyes. She realizes "that Mouse could be the most delicious meal in the world." A fantasy montage pictures Mouse's round, Mickey-esque ears sticking out of a burger, a taco or dipping sauce. After this dreadful epiphany, Cat flees to a stylized mountaintop to clear her mind of her obsession. A scroll-like spread shows her being visited by temptations until she falls ill; Mouse flies to her rescue, on the back of a crane, and nurses her back to health. Oh gives the age-old cat-and-mouse game a new iconic look. Cat's face is a perfect circle with pointed ears, and Mouse's head is a curvy teardrop. Both appear to have been drawn with an ink brush and placed in computer-generated settings replete with rice-paper screens, gnarled trees and cherry blossoms. Traditional symbols coincide with streamlined artwork and cuddly (though not always benevolent) characters in this droll debut. Ages 4-7. (June)