“Me And My Cat” by Satoshi Kitamura

A witch’s curse leaves Nicholas in the body of his cat, Leonardo, and the cat in the body of Nicholas.  Surprised at first, Nicholas adjusts to his new physique, especially the addition of WHISKERS!

In the beginning he’s just glad not to have to go to school, but then he tries out his new skills of leaping and climbing . . . with disastrous results!  He even starts to have a fascination with litter boxes and goldfish!

Meanwhile, his cat, Leonardo, in Nicholas’ body, comes home from school through the cat door.

Mother becomes very concerned about nicholas and his odd behavior or is it really Leonardo?  Oh, it gets very confusing and oh so silly!

Poor Nicholas and poor Leonardo. By bedtime, everyone is exhausted!

The witch comes back to remove the curse, saying she has placed it on the wrong person. Sorry . . .

The next day all is right again.  Nicholas is himself and Leonardo is purring as he should be.  But at school, something is wrong.  Oh no!  The teacher is on his desk, scratching and licking his shirt and curled up to take a nap!

This book is such a silly good romp into imaginative play!  It gives every child the chance to pretend to be not only someone else but something else.  A chance to look at what others do all day.  A chance to make messes they don’t have to clean up.  A chance to try on new attitudes and thoughts . . . but only for a little while.  After all, as the book teaches, there’s nothing better than being yourself.