"A Pussycat's Christmas", "Call of the Wolves" and "My Name is Sangoel"

Although very different, all of these were fun and interesting.

A Pussycat's Christmas
5 stars
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator: Anne Mortimer

This is a cat lover's book.
How does a cat know it's Christmas time? There are the sights, the sounds, the smells.
Even though the text is great reading, the illustrations make the book. The cat seems real. His antics definitely are real. Mortimer definitely deserves the accolades for her cat illustrations.

Call of the Wolves
4.5 stars
Author: Jim Murphy
Illustrator: Mark Alan Weatherby

This is more a short story than a picture book.
A wolf pack is moving down to follow the caribou for the winter. Illegal hunters fly through and leave a young wolf injured and stranded. He must escape another wolf pack as he has trespassed int heir territory and find his own pack, if he is to survive.
There is an information story about wolves at the end of the book.
The illustrations are superb. Their subdues coloring almost makes you shiver with the cold of the mountains.

My Name is Sangoel
5 stars
Author: Karen Lynn Williams, Khadra Mohammed
Illustrator: Catherine Stock

Sangoel, his mother and sister are refugees from an area of Sudan. They are some of the lucky ones who find a sponsor and leave the refugee camp for the United States.
Suddenly they see lots of people, traffic, escalators and more totally foreign to them. Even in the apartment The stove, refrigerator, TV are strange. So is the food.
Sangoel goes to school. No one knows how to pronounce his name. He feels so alone.
His solution to help people pronounce his name is a delight.
The illustrations bring out some of the things a new refugee would find strange, difficult to cope with and the determination it takes to move to a strange, new world.