Mittens for Kittens

I popped into a thrift store near my office today at lunch and found this wonderful children's book called "Mittens for Kittens and other Rhymes about Cats".  The poems were "chosen" by Lenore Blegvad and the book is illustrated by her husband Erik.

From the look of it, I thought this was a very old book but it turns out it is merely vintage, copyrighted 1974.  It used to be a library book and still has the library card in the back (sadly empty of signouts, which is no doubt why the book was discarded).

The inside flap describes it as "an engaging selection of old rhymes about cats and kittens" and it is definitely that but it is the illustrations (reproduced here completely without permission) that I find most delightful.

"Do kittens wear mittens? Whoever saw little kittens with mittens?"  They do in two of the nursery rhymes in this book!  In one, the kittens are on their way to town to get some mittens - they appear to be trying on various pairs in this drawing, with the help of a kindly shopkeeper:

And then there is the poem about the 3 little kittens who lost their mittens and when they find them, their mother gives them some pie.

This picture is one of my favourites:

It illustrates one of the few poems in the book that I recognize, the one about the pussy cat who has been to London to visit the Queen. "Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair." Note the headline on the newspaper banner in the picture above - very clever, don't you think?

I think this was $1.99 very well spent!