Friend or Foe?

A quiet, thoughtful narrative for all readers who like to wonder.

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.)

Every evening, a mouse creeps to the roof and looks up at a cat. Every evening, the cat climbs the palace stairs and looks down at the mouse. The cat cannot leave, but one day the mouse discovers a way into the palace. The mouse thinks for a long time—should he enter? "He was wondering if—after all those hours of looking at each other—he and the cat were friends." The mouse decides that his desire for friendship makes the risk worthwhile, but as he creeps through the palace, his mind spins: "Was the cat friend or foe?" With great suspense, the mouse approaches the cat, who is in her usual evening perch, looking down at the house below. The cat is so startled by the mouse that she falls—safely—out the window and is adopted by the woman in the house. Their places reversed, the two still see each other every evening. The cat looks up and the mouse looks down, but still the mouse wonders, "Friend or foe?" The spare graphite and ink wash illustrations, highlighted digitally with tiny pops of color, give the story a gravitas that fits its existential questioning. While the title query is never definitively answered, the characters and drama provide a satisfying reading experience. VERDICT A solid addition for most libraries; hand this one to fans of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's Sam and Dave Dig a Hole.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN