One Kitten for Kim
Adelaide Holl ~ Don Madden ~ Addison-Wesley, 1969
Don Madden is an artist I'd definitely like to know more about, just in case anyone is holding out on the biographical information. Quintessential 1960s children's illustrator and more, at our house we love everything about his work. The colors. The animal faces. The characters. My son will never turn down a book by Don once he gets an eyeful of the art. (And writer Adelaide Holl isn't too shabby herself.)
Sooooo, Kim's cat Geraldine has kittens, see? And his mom insists he must get rid of them. That he can only keep one kitten, so he loads up the kittens into a basket and the basket into a wagon and goes in search of a new home for each. Only everyone he finds to give a kitten away to, gives him something in exchange. A comedy of errors of sorts, it ends on a delightfully-oblivious defiant note...
Kim peered into the jar. There was a tiny green animal covered with scales. It had a little pointed face and a long green tail.
"I've never seen a chameleon before," cried Kim excitedly. "Yes, thank you! I sure would like to have it!"
Carefully he set the glass jar in his wagon, and away he went home with an empty basket, two fish in a bowl, one green parrot in a cage, a wiggly brown puppy in a box, a shiny black rooster in a crate and a tiny chameleon in a jar. As he pulled his wagon into the yard Kim shouted excitedly, "Hey, Mom, Dad!" I found a home for every single kitten! Aren't you glad?"
I know I would be. Seriously.
The last time I looked, my son had nine pets, but who's counting?
Also by:Rain Puddle
Sir Kevin of Devon
Is There Life in Outer Space?
The Daddy Book
Oxygen Keeps You Alive
The Wartville Wizard
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4 comments:
So funny--I bought this book at a book sale two weeks ago and immediately came home and checked to see what you'd written about Don Madden (of course I knew there'd be something! It totally looked like your style). And then last weekend I went to another sale and bought "Lemonade Serenade," also illustrated by him.
Don't have Lemonade Serenade so if you run into another copy, keep me in mind. ;)
My mom read me this book all the time when i was little. I recently found my old copy that even had my name written in crayon on the inside. I love how colorful and cute the illustrations are . I took the book to the library and photocopied some of the pictures in black and white to use in my room. I love taking pictures and decorating my room with them.
I demanded this book to be read to me over and over, and I still have the original copy....that unfortunately I colored with a purple crayon. Obviously I loved it so much I wanted to be one with the artist.
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