K-Gr 3-- Two sisters, Elizabeth and Sarah, adopt the cat who appears on their doorstep every evening--but never during the day. Soon he is sleeping on their beds and answering to the name of Charlie. The girls visit their father in the city every weekend, but on weekdays, when they are home with their mother, Charlie is always there by suppertime. One night the cat doesn't come. The next day the girls discover that he lives in a house with a family on the other side of the woods, where he is called Anderson, fed by day and let out by night. They all call the cat Charlie Anderson,'' and realize that he, like Elizabeth and Sarah,has two houses, two beds, two families who love him.'' Graham's soft-toned, realistic paintings of the charming little girls and the furry gray cat are delightfully appealing, perfectly conveying the mood and message of the story. --Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

The pleasant, though familiar, story of a cat who has two homes long unbeknownst to either owner - one set calls him Charlie, the other Anderson - is paralleled by the fact that one set of owners, two young sisters, also has two homes. A bit obvious, but the cat is pictured as a charmer.