From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.
Illustrated by the Khristenkos, and written by Xenia Mesot, this book was sweet and fun, and amusing. It has more words than your usual book of this nature and for me that's a good thing. The illustrations are well-done, fun and engaging, and the story is an unusual, but entertaining one. My family used to have a cat named Ginger who was a wild and crazy girl. Ginger here is a boy and the toad is the girl. The two meet and find each other interesting enough to become friends.
The book is divided into three short chapters each on a different topic. The first is of course their meeting, and becoming friends. The curious thing about that is that they don't tell each other their names, and are known throughout simply as Toad and Cat. They discuss their interests, which in Toad's case seem largely to be her fantasies about dragonflies, and in Cat's case seem to be mice. Go figure!
They talk about their love of singing, and have a duet even though each thinks the other's voice could use some training. They discuss hygiene and Cat opines about being shampooed, which leads to an amusing discussion about what purpose it serves and how Cat tried to sabotage the process at one point.
The book was deliciously offbeat and very warming to read, and I commend it completely.
