KATIE KITTENHEART

Another of Miriam Mason's sure-handed stories about a small girl in the country, Katie Kittenheart is a blend of easy reading and small girl mix-ups to lure hesitant readers along the road to bookland. At Turkey Track, her grandmother's farm in Kentucky, Katie attends Mud Lick School. She longs for the day when she can be teacher's helper, but always bigger boys and girls are chosen. After the kitten accidentally got into the washing machine and was put into the oven to dry, Katie went off to school. But though the other members of her class went on a Big Trip to the city, Katie had to return home to rescue the kitten. Her decision to return to school brought her a chance to be a substitute teacher in the first grade with attendant fears and triumphs when floods marooned her with the class. What Carolyn Haywood's Eddie has done for boys, Miriam Mason's stories do for girls.