Ollie & Moon

In the main story line of Kredensor's debut, cartoon cat Ollie offers a surprise to his friend Moon. With mounting excitement, she asks questions and collects clues that accumulate throughout the pages. "So my surprise is... ROUND and MUSICAL, it has LOTS OF COLORS, it has FUR, HOOVES, and FEATHERS, and it's BRIGHT with LIGHTS!" (Spoiler: it's a carousel ride.) It's an oddly unfocused work; it feels like the second volume of a series whose first volume has gone missing. Kredensor's drawings of the two goggle-eyed cats are shown against Kress's photographs of Paris, where the duo lives, and French vocabulary is sprinkled throughout ("Ollie's stomach was growling, so they stopped at the fromagerie to buy some Brie"). Laughs are thrown in whether they advance the story or not; on the title page, a Paris toilet is the vehicle for some light bathroom humor, as Ollie emerges with paper stuck to his paw; elsewhere, he surprises Moon in another bathroom. It's entertainment, but not the stuff memories are made of—despite the Parisian setting. Ages 3–6. (Apr.)