The Cat’s Out of the Bag!

JEREMY KOOLOO (Dutton: $13.99 ; ages 2 to 5) is a Big Cat with such a large longing for milk (nonfat, of course) that the dairy industry should hire him as a spokescat! Talented author-illustrator Tim Mahurin’s first book is not only a marvel of economical storytelling but one of the most drolly original ABC books in years. It actually manages to tell a coherent, unforced story in only 26 words, each presented in strict alphabetical order! But, of course, that laconic text is dramatically expanded by those 13 wonderful, double-page paintings Mahurin has also created, each of which is worth a baker’s dozen alphabets. Readers will purr with pleasure.

Berkeley-based author Gary Soto’s Chato is a different breed of cat altogether. The hero of CHATO’S KITCHEN (Putnam: $15.95; ages 4 to 8) is a super-cool, low-riding homeboy cat who lives in East L.A. The only thing he has in common with Kooloo is an outsize appetite but his palate is not primed for milk but, instead, for the family of mice that has just moved in next door. Chato is the only cat I know who not only makes a mean fajita but whistles “La Bamba” while he bustles about the kitchen, dreaming of chorizo con mice. Soto’s warmly atmospheric text is flavored with Spanish words and phrases (a helpful glossary is appended) but the real spice here is provided by California artist Susan Guevara’s brilliantly witty, zestily colorful pictures.

In ALICE NIZZY NAZZY: The Witch of Santa Fe (Putnam: $15.95; ages 4 to 8), Tony Johnston, another gifted California writer, borrows Russia’s Baba Yaga, gives her a new name, a witty new story and a brand new home in New Mexico’s oldest city. Hungry as Chato and Jeremy, Baba--uh, Alice--is intent on eating up an innocent shepherd girl named Manuela until she discovers to her disgust that “good children taste so sour!” Illustrator Tomie de Paola, an old pro, has wonderful fun with Johnston’s breezy text, serving up a feast of laugh-out-loud images. “Alice Nizzy Nazzy” is some kind of snazzy!

The incomparable Glen Rounds has been creating books for kids for nearly 60 years. With a straightforward prose style and a signature scratchy line, he is an American original. His latest, SOD HOUSES ON THE GREAT PLAINS (Holiday House: $15.95; ages 3 to 8) focuses on an element of Americana with which he is personally familiar--as a boy, he actually lived in a sod house in South Dakota. His sketchy, subtly colored pictures are packed with personality, adding dimension and wit to the factual information he offers here about the construction of sod houses and the realities of living in them.

Another American original is the poet Donald Hall. Readers of all ages who enjoyed his 1994 title, “Lucy’s Christmas,” a loving recreation of his 90-year-old mother’s childhood in rural New Hampshire, will be pleased to learn that a companion volume, LUCY’S SUMMER (Browndeer/Harcourt Brace: $15) has now been published. Michael McCurdy once again provides exquisitely colored and brilliantly evocative scratchboard illustrations.