The Rare Bird

With concise text and watercolors that feel full of swift motion, Cooper (Here Is a Book) introduces a house cat—white with a black stripe—who, after peering at a book featuring arrayed animals, imagines himself as a sprightly bird. Throughout the day, the cat transforms his surroundings as “the Rare Bird flew all around his world.” In a sunny city apartment shared with a placid dog and a family of humans portrayed with light brown skin, curtains become high branches, a shower represents a waterfall, and the hound’s tail turns into a worm. In late afternoon, the cat pauses his playing to dream by a window, and for the first time, in a series of full spreads, readers view him as he sees himself: as a member of a bluebird family both nesting and taking flight. At day’s end, cuddled on a human’s lap and listening to another story, he’s already imagining the morrow, when he will become “the Extraordinary Elephant.” Asking whether a cat’s quotidian mischief-making might represent the manifestations of a rich interior life, it’s a gentle celebration of imagination that honors both the wildness of play and the creature comforts of home. Ages 3–6. (Feb.)