The Clever Cat (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780692636350)

Eleanor Frances Lattimore was born in China where her father and mother had gone to teach English at a Chinese government university. Eleanor studied art in Oakland, California, New York City and Boston and worked for several years in New York City as a freelance artist, designing greeting cards and Christmas cards and illustrating books for children. One day Eleanor went to see a children's book editor to see if she had any work for her to do. The editor, Elizabeth Bevier, especially liked Eleanor's drawings of little Chinese children. "It's too bad we don't have a book about a little Chinese child," said Miss Bevier, "because if we did I'd want you to make the illustrations for it." Eleanor took this as an invitation for her to write a book! So she went back to her apartment and in about a week she wrote a book about a mischievous little Chinese boy named "Little Pear." Little Pear was published in 1931 and it is still in print, 84 years later. Altogether, Eleanor published 57 books between 1931 and 1978. There were three more books about Little Pear - Little Pear and his Friends (1934), Little Pear and the Rabbits (1956) and More About Little Pear (1971). Most of Eleanor's books are written for children in second and third grade. They are written simply and directly and are about things that happen in everyday life: falling in the water, losing a key and getting it back, getting to know a cousin from another part of the country, and so on. Many of Eleanor's books are set in China where she grew up. Others are set in places where she lived. Many of her books are loosely based on the adventures of her children and grandchildren. The Clever Cat (1936) is based on the adventures of a real cat named Ulysses who belonged to Eleanor's father in Hanover, New Hampshire. Judith and Rose were really Marguerite and Audrey, daughters of Eleanor's sister Isabel.