One Dark Night

My four-year-old son loves this book. It has three elements he thinks are great: grandparents, cats, and a storm. The illustrations are very well done and give you a feeling of the storm. My son particularly loves the counting in the book to determine distance as you are seeing the lightning and listening to the thunder race ever closer while the mother cat tries to save her kittens from the oncoming storm.

When young Jonathan opens the door of his grandparents' home on a dark and stormy night, he finds a stray cat that he thinks is afraid of the thunder. His grandmother, on the other hand, doesn't believe that cats fear thunder - she thinks the cat is trying to bring in a mouse. Before grandmother or grandfather can stop her, stray cat has lain her surprise on the rug. It isn't a mouse at all but a tiny kitten, "soft as whispers, gray as dawn." One small kitten isn't the only surprise stray cat has for Jonathan in this warm story of parental devotion and caring. Illustrator Susan Kathleen Hartung used oil paint glazes on sealed paper to create memorable illustrations of rain washed darkness broken by the welcoming lights of a home.