Catwings

Catwings Mrs. Jane Tabby can't explain why her four kittens were born with wings, but she is grateful that they are able to use their flying skills to soar away from the dangerous city slums where they were born. However, once the kittens escape the big city, they learn that country life can be just as difficult. Catwings Return James and Harriet return to the city to find their mother. When they arrive, they find a small black kitten with wings, isolated and traumatized. They gain its trust, find their mother, and learn that the kitten is hers – lost when their first home, an old dumpster, was moved. Mother Jane declines to leave the city but asks James and Harriet to take the kitten with them. They do, and the rural children who have cared for them name her Jane. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings In the country, a self-important young cat named Alexander leaves home and finds the catwings family. He grows up as he helps Jane talk. Jane on Her Own Young Jane leaves her farm family and returns to the city. She and mother Jane find a home with a woman in an apartment. == Publication ==

All books were written by Ursula K. Le Guin and illustrated by S. D. Schindler; cover designs vary but consistently use illustrations by Schindler. U.S. editions were published by Scholastic, perhaps under its Orchard Books imprint. • Catwings (Orchard Books, 1988), • Catwings Return (1989) • Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings (1994) • Jane on Her Own (1999) • Tales of Catwings (UK: Puffin Books/Penguin, 1999), – omnibus edition of books 1–2 and Jane on Her Own: A Catwings Tale. == Reception ==

Kirkus Reviews called the first Catwings book "a charming, if insubstantial story" and concluded, "Although there is nothing extraordinary here in either theme or event, the wit and precision with which the story is told give it considerable appeal. Schindler's exquisitely detailed drawings, warmed with the softest of added color, make a perfect accompaniment to what should serve as a satisfying young reader or as a read-aloud". Reviewing the sequel six months later, Kirkus observed: "Like its predecessor, this is a rather mild little story made interesting by its beguiling subject, the author's wit and felicitous use of language, and the illustrator's fine, splendidly detailed drawings". == Illustrator ==

Steven D. Schindler was born September 27, 1952, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, A list of works published in January 2007 covered more than 100 books but only one as both writer and illustrator ("self-illustrated"), namely My First Bird Book (Random House, 1989, ). As of August 2015 the Library of Congress Online Catalog includes 130 records of books that it credits to him, which may include multiple editions of some titles. Its records for those two books alone credit Schindler as writer and illustrator. • Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs!, written by Kathleen V. Kudlinski (Dutton Children's Books, 2005), unpaged, • Whittington, Alan Armstrong (Random House, 2005), 191 pp. – featuring "a feline descendant of Dick Whittington's famous cat of English folklore", • The Story of Salt, Mark Kurlansky (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2006), 48 pp., • Tricking the Tallyman, Jacqueline D. Davies (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), unpaged – set in Vermont during the inaugural 1790 U.S. census, == Notes ==