Mr Wuffles!

This near wordless picture book features a black and white cat, Mr Wuffles.

Having shown complete indifference to his numerous toys – the price tags still remain attached to them – he comes upon a small spaceship and that does capture his attention. Indeed his exuberance wreaks havoc aboard. Within are a host of tiny aliens whose mode of communication is represented via hieroglyphics (mostly geometric symbols). When Mr Wuffles starts acting menacingly towards these creatures they form an alliance with a group of ants and ladybirds beneath the radiator. They have adorned the walls of their hiding place with narrative paintings in the Lascaux style, featuring their terrifying feline foe to which their alien visitors add their own story. Through these drawings, communications are established between the aliens and the insects who offer a number of small found items including a pencil, a screw and a marble for repairing the ship and an escape plan is hatched.

This plan is duly executed and the now repaired spacecraft takes off through the window leaving an extremely angry and frustrated looking Mr W. gazing after it and the insects adding to their mural.

Despite the amazing wealth of detail, Wiesner has, in his witty, brilliantly imaginative, pictorial sequences, still left plenty of gaps for his readers to fill; indeed it is almost a graphic novel. Assuredly it is a book to paw/pore over and to return to time again with the possibility of further discoveries and insights.