Catkin

There was once a cat so small that he could sit in comfort on the palm of a man’s hand. He was born to an old mother who lived with a Wise Woman on the top of a round green hill.
«The last is often the best,» said the Wise Woman to the old cat, and she named him Catkin because his golden tail was no bigger than the hazel catkins that danced outside her window.

Catkin is a cat so small that he can sit on the palm of a man’s hand. He lives with a Wise Woman at the top of a hill, at the foot of which live a farmer, his wife and their only child, Carrie. Seeing some danger coming towards the girl, the Wise Woman gives Catkin to her as a guardian — and the two love each other dearly. But one day, while Carrie sleeps in the bushes and Catkin chases a butterfly, the Little People come out from their home inside the hill and take the child, leaving a changeling in her place. Only Catkin can rescue her. He must go into the land of the Little People and win her back from their Lord and Lady, whose riddles and powers of enchantment will test his courage and cleverness to the full.

Catkin has the richness and resonance of a favourite fairy tale. Enchantingly written by the author of The Mousehole Cat, it is illustrated with dazzling skill, beauty and imagination by P.J. Lynch.