Bits & Pieces
K-Gr 1–Although Tink's brain is “the size of a frozen pea,” his family loves their not-so-bright cat to bits. After a goatlike meal of household odds and ends lands him at the vet, their beloved boy gets a taste of the adventure and mystery of the great outdoors. His family gets him a brother for company, but he still longs for life on the outside. He finally sneaks out on his 20th birthday, and a day full of frolicking turns into a night of wandering, and he wakes lost and confused in an old tire. Two quick-thinking neighborhood girls save him from being carted off to a shelter and he is enthusiastically welcomed home. Schachner's smudgy, cheerful illustrations buoy up this story that is occasionally bogged down by an apparent attempt to squeeze the real Tink's long life into a few picture-book pages. Nonetheless, the author's fans and cat lovers will relate to the story of the feline's antics and the satisfying resolution.–Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, OHα(c) Copyright 2013.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.