Puss Jekyll Cat Hyde

Most cat owners will instantly recognise Puss Jekyll and her nocturnal counterpart, Cat Hyde. The cat on the cover of this elegantly presented volume looks out, enigmatically: which one is she? And the self-contained feline on the title page suggests that like most cats, it is she, not any human, who decides who and what she shall be. She’s black and white, two aspects of the same cat personality: in the daytime ‘Sleek, sweet Pusskins, so meek and mild’ and then, after sun down, ‘War torn, love worn, battered and tattered … so wicked and wild’.

Barton, on generous double-spreads, splendidly captures the dual aspects of this cat as she rolls over to play or stalks through the darkness, prowling, hunting, ready for the kill. Her palette is muted, allowing Pusscat Jekyll/Hyde to stand out on each page, and her grainy, crayony textured surfaces give substance to the cat and her backgrounds. This is matched by Dunbar’s descriptive word sequences, making this a lovely book for a child to look at alone, or even better, to share with a complicit cat-admiring adult.