A cat participates in a race car adventure, earning the respect of her feline friends.Asta is strolling through an alley at night when a group of cats zooms by in race cars, calling her a "slowpoke." When she learns about a race on Saturday at Kibble Hill, she gathers her tools and blowtorch and transforms her washing machine into a functional if blocky racing vehicle. After a test drive down Mount Tuna Road, it's off to the races for four fast-paced spreads. Asta is the first ("by a whisker!") to cross the finish line. Cat lovers and fans of auto racing, in particular, will get a kick out of seeing the cats' creatively rendered vehicles: Ludlow drives a melon-shaped car; Marvin steers a motorized shopping cart; and Professor Kim has built an impressive, elaborate cat-shaped vehicle that she controls from inside a bubble top. There's much humor in seeing the determined cats, some in racing goggles, fly down the track that loops through town on spreads dominated by vivid oranges, reds, and yellows. Detailed jokes await observant readers, such as the presence of a "Cat-olic Church" on the spread showing the racing map. The book's abrupt rim shot ending leaves readers wondering if Asta dreamed it all, a resolution that may disappoint some readers who experience a vicarious thrill in Asta's win.Start your engines for some energetic fun. (Picture book. 4-10)

Asta, an orange feline, is deeply insulted when the drag-racing cats in her alley overtake her-one of them even calls her a slowpoke. In response, Asta reengineers the family washing machine into a roadster and signs on for the big cat auto race (a full spread maps the entire street course winding through the cats- town). Asta-s vehicle is far from the oddest: one cat pilots a shopping cart, another takes the wheel of what appears to be a cross between a pickle and a squash. But Asta is triumphant-until she realizes she-s dreamed the whole thing while napping inside the washing machine. The story is short on character development, and the -then they woke up- ending will frustrate invested readers. But graphic artist Trickartt-s pictures, rendered in the flat, sharp colors and stylized crispness of vector art, have lots of fizz and detail. He-s especially good at breaking down the action so readers can savor the story-s progress, whether it-s Asta-s creation of her souped-up washer (that cat knows how to weld) or the stages of the race itself, with its breakneck speeds, hairpin turns, and wipeouts. Ages 3-7. (July)