A kitten's tale
By: written and illustrated by Audrey Chalmers.
Publisher: The Viking press
Published: 1946
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 45
First sentence: Once there was a kitten who didn't seem to belong to anyone.
Description: We meet a kitten peeking up over the edge of a wooden grapefruit box that is now a trash container. She doesn't "seem to belong to anyone" but she is "the hopeful sort", as you can tell by her tail, which she holds straight up. She walks along Main Street where the big clock is ringing 5:00 ("going-home time"), looking for a pair of shoes that will stop and take her home with them. She runs after shoes of various kinds, but especially small-sized ones, which are doing things like roller skating, riding a tricycle, skipping rope, and walking on stilts. She meows and pr-rrps to each pair but none of them stop. Finally she meows and pr-rrps to a shiny new pair of patent leather slippers (Mary Janes), four-year-old size, that are coming out of Mr. Googin's shoe shop. The wearer wants to stop but her mother hurries her home to be there for Dad, and the slippers vanish around the corner. The kitten tries to follow but loses them. The big clock rings 6:00 ("time to be home"). The kitten stops at the corner for a wash. Then she walks around the corner onto a quiet side street with trees and houses and lawns. She walks along looking at the houses to see where there might be a home for her. Her tail droops as she walks by the first house, which looks gloomy and unwelcoming; the second house, which looks sad and uncared-for; and the third house, which has a barking beagle behind a fence. The next house, however, looks cozy and welcoming, and the kitten's tail goes straight up again and she walks up to the front door. The door is shut, so she jumps onto a window ledge and meows and pr-rrps at the window. Footsteps come running and the door opens. By the time Martha, the little girl, flings open the door the kitten is sitting right there "with her tail curled round her paws and her whiskers just so".  Martha invites the kitten in and tells her that she had been expecting her, and explains to her mother that the kitten has come to live with them. The kitten explores the living room, where there is a warm fire in the fireplace, and the kitchen, where Martha gets a pitcher of milk from the icebox and fills a pretty yellow saucer for the kitten. After lapping up all the milk and cleaning her whiskers the kitten curls up at Martha's feet in front of the fire and almost falls asleep, but suddenly opens her eyes and meows, which Martha understands means that the kitten is asking for a name. Martha and her mother agree on the name Hopeful "because of her tail". The big clock is heard ringing 7:00. The kitten's eyes close all the way and she falls asleep.
Notes: "Copyright 1946 by Audrey Chalmers" / "First published by the Viking Press in November 1946 / Published on the same day in the Dominion of Canada by the MacMillan Company of Canada Limited / Printed in the United States of America by Reehl Litho Co."
DEDICATION: "To the Hewlett School"
PHYSICAL DESIGN NOTES: Picture book. Paper cover and jacket are red with white lettering. Front cover has picture of the kitten's face in a white circle. Jacket front has oblong picture of the kitten in the grapefruit box. Jacket back has circular cutout from the picture of the kitten looking in through the window. Illustrations are drawings in shades of gray, perhaps done with chalk.