He’s not my cat!” says the grumpy Mr. McGratt about the uninvited stray in this picture book by Marilyn Helmer (author of Fog Cat and The Boy, the Dollar and the Wonderful Hat).

McGratt’s an old curmudgeon who insists this puss is much too ornery to keep. “Scat! Scram! Skedaddle!” he shouts throughout the story. Martine Gourbault has rendered McGratt and the rest of the book in pale coloured pencil on what seems to be canvas fabric. These illustrations are not quite as cheerful as her charming cartoons in I Went to the Bay and No Dragons for Tea. The cat has the strangest proportions, and the expression on his misshapen face is frequently bizarre. Mr. McGratt attempts to unload the cat three times, eventually realizing that the creature might be of some use to him for keeping starlings out of the pear tree, his newspaper from getting chewed by a local dog, and the neighbour boy from taking shortcuts through his pumpkin patch. Then he shares his tuna sandwich, names the cat Ornery, and that’s the happy ending. Nothing particularly ties together in this book, and there aren’t very good reasons why the cat keeps getting returned or the cat/curmudgeon relationship gets repaired. It’s a mildly pleasant story, but so are many other books with similar plots and more engaging art and use of language.