GemLore

The helter-skelter good cheer of Aunt Nina and Her Nephews and Nieces - in a more focused, more structured, irresistibly pictured story. Mopey siblings Alex and Alexandra are wishing for company, one rainy day, when cousins Bernard and Bernadette appear at the door: now, they'll all put on a puppet show! But: It's no good performing for nobody, says Bernard - whereupon cousins Charles and Charlotte ring the bell. (Each new twosome comes identically rain-togged, head to foot; and there is much jolly shedding of boots and cavorting in bare feet.) Charles and Charlotte, however, have puppet-show ambitions too; they don't want to be audience. Then the doorbell rings again, bringing Aunt Nina, who's brought each of them a kitten (as promised in the previous book). The six kittens make a mad melee of the puppet show; Aunt Nina calls it the funniest she's ever seen; the nieces and nephews call her the best audience we ever had. And the day winds up, after the kittens disrupt lunch and scuttle naptime, with the cousins happily going home carrying the kittens in their unneeded rain gear. As for Alex and Alexandra, now they'll always have company - our kittens. Brightly phrased, enchantingly drawn (lots of puppet and other vignettes, all manner of kitten cutenesses), graced with those fanciful/folk-ish cousin pairings - and altogether lettuce-fresh. (Kirkus Reviews)