Me and Mr. Fluffernutter

September 11, 2017
Droll mixed-media art belies a perky narrative in Olson’s story of a girl and her cat, best friends who don’t always see eye to eye. “We love spending time together doing all of our favorite things,” chirps narrator Mia, who has planned a morning filled with “tons of fun.” On the agenda are a tea party (Mr. Fluffernutter, her cat, sits grumpily at the table wearing rouge and a wide-brimmed straw hat), playing dress-up (he cheerlessly sports a tiara, sunglasses, and fur boa), and swimming (submerged up to his chin, the scowling feline is kept afloat by a pair of swimmies). After the cat’s patience wears out, and he stalks off to go stare at the goldfish bowl, Mia sniffs that they will each have more fun alone, which isn’t the case, naturally. With small tweaks to her characters’ facial expressions, Olson (the Ninja Bunny books) evokes a panoply of emotions to comical and poignant effect. Without getting didactic, she imparts a clear message about the benefits of compromising and respecting differences. Ages 3–7. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary.

July 1, 2017
Best friends do everything together...right?"Mr. Fluffernutter and I are best friends. // We love spending time together / doing all of our favorite things." A light-skinned girl with two puffy, pompom ponytails and her Siamese cat, Mr. Fluffernutter, draw pictures (he bats at the crayons) and chase butterflies. The tea party that follows seems less to Mr. Fluffernutter's liking (perhaps it's the hat). He doesn't look to be enjoying swinging or swimming either. His little girl just doesn't understand why he would walk away from playing baby in the pram (he's wearing a bonnet, of course). Seems he'd rather watch the goldfish swim (which she finds boring). His stinky choice of lunch and insistence on lengthy bouts of yarn play make the girl question their friendship. Maybe they'll have fun alone--but they don't, a fact made plain in both expression and body language in a double-page spread of vignettes. They find they really do enjoy doing everything together--but sometimes they "just do it a little differently." Olson applies the same sweetly dry humor to feline-human relations that she did to ninja bunnies. Her pudgy, watercolor-and-pencil illustrations smartly convey the depth of the bond between these two. Young listeners might not catch Mr. Fluffernutter's discontent at first glance, but his expressions tell all for the observant tot. Plenty of appeal for pets and the small people who love them. (Picture book. 3-7)

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