Frank wants to give the best 80th birthday present in the world to his friend Mrs. Kazinski, who lives in the attic of their full-to-bursting old rooming house. He asks each of the tenants for advice, and each – in a quiet bit of oblique humour – suggests the thing he or she most desires. “Women love flowers!” exclaims the moustachioed Captain Pittaway, who dotes on flowers. “Everybody likes food,” muses Frank’s mother, who works in a fish and chip store.

Edmonton author Marilynn Reynolds, whose recent book The Prairie Fire was nominated for the CLA Book of the Year, has a deft hand at understated observations (“She was nobody’s cat – she belonged to herself”) and is able to evoke, with unsentimental tenderness, a child’s wistful anxiety to express his love with a perfect gift. Frank crafts two homemade paintings but neither turns out very well; he window-shops in vain. When he hits on the idea of giving Mrs. Kazinksi one of the kittens that live under the porch, Reynolds subtly lets the reader know Frank’s reluctance to part with his new-found pet and his happiness with Mrs. Kazinski’s empathetic solution.

Illustrations by Lynn Smith-Ary, an animation filmmaker, add greatly to the story’s liveliness and interest. Deep, rich purples, vibrant blues and sea-greens entice the eye deep into the detail-filled pictures, where paintings on the tenants’ walls suggest their fascinating histories. The artist alternates narrow panels beside the text with full-page paintings on facing pages. The skinny panels add homey, appealing detail to the characters’ lives (Frank’s mother soaks her feet after a day’s work) or amplify the story with clever hints at unfolding narrative. All the characters (including the cats) are depicted with a warmth and affectionate humour that enhance the book’s atmosphere of loving kindness.