Friend or Foe?

With the practiced pace of a seasoned storyteller, author/musician Sobel draws readers into a standoff between a cat who lives in a palace and a mouse in a small house below. “Every evening the cat climbed the stairs to the palace tower and sat in the highest window,” he writes. “Every night, as darkness settled, the cat peered down at the mouse, and the mouse stared up at the cat. This is how it was.” The lonely mouse is so fascinated by the cat, despite the potential danger, that he finds a way into the palace, up the stairs, and into the cat’s room, with startling results. At the point when narrative convention calls for resolution, Sobel offers enigma. Tolstikova’s (The Jacket) delicately washed spreads of gray and red generalize rather than distinguish, as befits a fable. Her animal heroes are more angular than adorable, and she resists the urge to fill the palace with luxurious furniture and draperies; it’s a place of quiet restraint and stony silence. Children with a tolerance for ambiguity will enjoy talking about the riddle of an ending. Ages 4–7. (Oct.)