Amazon.com (ISBN 0786805145, Hardcover)

Julie Andrews Edwards is probably best known for her stunning role in The Sound of Music, but the truth is, she's been thrilling readers since 1971 with her splendid children's books Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. Edwards wrote her first children's book for her daughter when she lost a bet--for which the book was the payoff. Now, nearly 30 years later, we're delighted that Edwards has put pen to paper again with Little Bo: The Story of Bonnie Boadicea.

This gentle story begins when Sarabande, Mrs. Edge's champion Persian cat, has a litter of kittens. Not, mind you, prize-winning kittens, but kittens born to the proud, handsome alley cat Bounder. Unwelcome, unwanted, the kittens narrowly escape a watery end--and that's where Little Bo's adventures begin. The tiniest, most beautiful kitten of the litter is named by her father for Boadicea, a fearless warrior queen. But Bo isn't feeling too brave or regal when she, separated from her brothers and sisters on a cold winter's night, wails "a long, miserable cry that came from her heart." Happily, her cry is answered by a friendly, warm-hearted young sailor named Billy Bates who falls in love with her wide, violet eyes.

Bo knows better than to leave his side, so she stows away in the captain's cabin and sets sail with him on the Red Betsy where she begins her life as a ship's cat. Her adventures--stormy and dangerous as they are--make for a sweet, suspenseful tale of friendship and loyalty. Illustrator Henry Cole (of Jack's Garden and Livingstone Mouse) infuses life and emotion into Edwards's already thoroughly charming story. (Ages 8 and older, younger for reading aloud) --Karin Snelson