Harumin Asao's series of cat flipbooks is delightful.

Para-Para Flipbook: A Cat's Birthday / ISBN 9784861524387 / Seigensha (Japan)

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Para-Para Flipbooks are like small movie theaters right in the palm of your hand.

Para-Para Flipbooks are magical and heartwarming with unforgettable characters.

Para-Para Flipbooks make great little presents for everyone!

The Para-Para Flipbooks may be wordless, but they have lots to tell: flip through the pages, and chuckle as the pictures spring into motion in stories filled with imaginative visual effects and surprise twists. These artful “animated” shorts by some of the most exciting Japanese picture-book talents of today have sold nearly million copies and are lighting up smiles all over the world.

“Not home yet? Not home yet?” A cat waits eagerly for its master to return, dashing forward at the faintest creak of the door. The story is not only absolutely adorable, but witty too—the looong cat on the cover is a pun on the Japanese expression “to wait with neck outstretched.”