Black humor at its best. What a hoot when the mouse turns tails-er-tables on the cat! ( )

I love love love this book. In fact, I am going to purchase a copy as soon as possible because I want to read it many more times. I love seeing cats in a "sophisticated" world and going through more advanced emotions, such as Mr. Maxwell not being able to kill the mouse on his own. I love the cleverness of the mouse and how it manipulates Mr. Maxwell, which led to his, and all of his mice friends, escapes. Although this book is a little weird, I loved it. I also thought the illustrations were amazing. The pictures really made the story more intense and intriguing. (Sorry, I am losing what I want to say as I am saying it). ( )

Mr. Maxwell is a cat who is going out to eat at his favorite restaurant. Because he is celebrating a special occasion, he doesn't get his usual meal and instead gets a live mouse to eat. Before Mr. Maxwell is able to eat, the mouse has a seemingly innocent conversation with him. The mouse gets into Mr. Maxwell's head and convinces him to cover his eyes when he eats him; and when he does, the mouse escapes. The mouse frees all the other mice in the restaurant, then proceeds to go to many other restaurants to free all the other mice from being eaten. ( )

The word that comes to my mind is macabre. The mouse reminds me of trickster heroes like Br'er Rabbit. The level of detail in the dialogue and in the pictures makes it clear that this isn't for little children, so the blood shouldn't come as too much of a shock. Spend a little time with it. Don't expect it to resemble [b:Mooncake|315851|Mooncake|Frank Asch|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173706955s/315851.jpg|2988976] at all. I found it intelligent and more than superficially provocative, and if it encourages kids to become vegetarians, more power to them and to Mother Earth. ( )

Too sophisticated for children, but adults will enjoy it. Somewhat macabre, in a tasteful way. ( )