Binky Under Pressure (Binky #3)

K-Gr 4--Another winning entry in the series. In this installment, a new character enters Binky's well-regulated space station. While Gracie poses as a foster cat competing for his humans' affections, Binky soon realizes that she is in fact a captain in F.U.R.S.T. (Felines of the Universe Ready for Space Travel), and she has come to evaluate the performance of his space-cat duties. He struggles at first with the trials she sets before him, but when a real danger emerges, he and Gracie work together to protect their home from insect invaders. The story is cinematically told; Spires pulls into close-ups at key moments and shifts fluidly between the vantage points of her two main characters. Pages are well laid out; while the placement and shape of panels vary, they always guide readers' eyes easily through the action, and flashback and fantasy are easily distinguished from real-time events through the use of wavy panel boundaries. As always, the story is infused with laugh-out-loud moments aimed both at kids (Binky's recurring bouts of space gas) and at adults (annoyed at Gracie, Binky thinks, "If this is what girls are like, he's glad he's fixed"). The addition of Gracie gives the story a stronger conflict and greater dramatic heft than was found in the previous books, capped by a satisfying resolution that sets the stage for the space cat's next escapade. Sure to be a hit with graphic-novel fans and cat lovers.--Kate Hewitt, Far Brook School, Short Hills, NJ