This Story Is Not about a Kitten

K-Gr 3--The tiny black-and-white kitten is hungry, dirty, and alone. She needs a home. But this story is mostly of how first a dog, then a mom and little girl, and then neighbors of all kinds come to the rescue. It's about community, neighborliness, and cooperation more than about just one lost kitten. Full-color, detailed illustrations add to the cumulative rhymes and show how working together benefits not only the rescued kitten but all the people who build friendships and find commonality based on their mutual concern. This is an uplifting and heartfelt story without being maudlin, and children will enjoy both the story of a rescued kitten and the rhyme that builds from simple to complex, reflecting the intricate mosaic that is a neighborhood. Recommended for younger students for independent reading and as a read-aloud. VERDICT A lost kitten's rescue shows how working together and being neighborly benefits everyone.--Eva Elisabeth VonAncken

If, as the title indicates, this story isn't about the kitten that appears in its early pages—a black and white feline, with warm orange eyes and a quizzical expression—what is it about? Readers don't find out until later, but the reveal is worth the wait. In the meantime, incantatory lines pile up, House that Jack Built-style, as de Sève (Zola's Elephant) describes the kitty ("hungry and dirty/ scared and alone"), the dog that hears its mewing beneath a car, the dog's people who follow, and the neighbors of various ages, body types, and skin tones materializing to help. Pretty soon, everybody's working to extricate the animal. Using loose, naïf-style gouache and hand-lettered word balloons, Caldecott Honoree Ellis portrays a community united: faces peer around the space under the car, and visually varied hands hold the flaps of the kitten's box as neighbors, one by one, face the next problem—what to do with the kitten. One voice, a child's, makes a suggestion ("Could we?") in this celebration of cooperation and simple kindness that portrays a glad coming-together above all. Ages 4-8. Agent (for de Sève and Ellis): Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.)