The Tale of Tom Kitten facts for kids
First edition cover
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| Author | Beatrix Potter |
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| Illustrator | Beatrix Potter |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Frederick Warne & Co. |
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Publication date
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September 1907 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Preceded by | The Story of Miss Moppet |
| Followed by | The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck |
The Tale of Tom Kitten is a children's book, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was released by Frederick Warne & Co. in September 1907. The tale is about manners and how children react to them. Tabitha Twitchit, a cat, invites friends for tea. She washes and dresses her three kittens for the party, but within moments the kittens have soiled and lost their clothes while scampering about the garden. Tabitha is "affronted". She sends the kittens to bed, and tells her friends the kittens have the measles. Once the tea party is underway however, its "dignity and repose" are disturbed by the kittens romping overhead and leaving a bedroom in disorder.
Potter's career as a children's author and illustrator was launched in 1902 with the release of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She continued to publish, and, in 1905, bought Hill Top, a farm in Lancashire (now Cumbria), with the sales profits from her books and a small legacy from an aunt. Her tales then took inspiration from the farm, its woodland surroundings, and nearby villages. Work began on Tom Kitten in 1906 and its setting became the Hill Top farmhouse. Illustrations depict the interior of the house and the gardens, paths, and gate at the front of the house.
Twenty thousand copies of the book were released in September 1907 and another 12,500 the following December. Potter composed a few miniature letters for child friends as if from the characters in the tale, and, in 1917, she released a painting book under Tom Kitten's name. In 1935, two books of piano pieces and piano duets for children were published with one piece inspired by Tom Kitten and another by the Puddle-Ducks. Tom and other characters in the book have become the subjects of a variety of merchandise over the years including porcelain figurines and plush toys. The tale is still in print, and has been translated and published in several languages.
Contents
Plot
The tale begins with three feline siblings – Tom Kitten and his sisters Moppet and Mittens – tumbling about the doorstep and playing in the dust. Their mother, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, expects "fine company" for tea so she fetches the children indoors to wash and dress them before her friends arrive. Tom is "very naughty" and scratches his mother while she grooms him. Tabitha dresses Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers, and Tom in "all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes" taken from a chest of drawers. Tom is fat and bursts several buttons, but his mother sews them back on again.
Tabitha turns her kittens into the garden to keep them out of the way while she makes hot buttered toast for the party. She tells them to keep their frocks clean and keep away from the pigsty, the dirty ash pit, Sally Henny Penny, and the Puddle-Ducks, and then returns to her work. Moppet and Mittens soon have their pinafores smeared with grass stains. They climb upon the garden wall and lose some of their clothing in the ascent. Tom has a more difficult time gaining the top of the wall "breaking the ferns, and shedding buttons right and left". He is disheveled when he reaches the top of the wall, and loses his hat, but his sisters try to pull him together. The rest of his buttons burst.
Three Puddle-ducks come marching along the road – "pit pat paddle pat! pit pat waddle pat!" Jemima Puddle-duck and Rebeccah put on some of the dropped clothing. The kittens lose the rest of their clothing descending the wall. Moppet invites Mr. Drake Puddle-duck to help dress Tom. He picks up various articles of Tom's clothing and "he put[s] them on himself!" The three ducks set off up the road just as Tabitha approaches and discovers her three children with no clothes on. She pulls them off the wall, "smacks" them, and takes them back to the house. "My friends will arrive in a minute, and you are not fit to be seen; I am affronted!" she says.
Tabitha sends her kittens upstairs, and tells her guests the kittens are in bed with the measles. However, "the dignity and repose of the tea party" is disturbed by the "very extraordinary noises overhead" as the playful kittens romp in a bedroom. An illustration depicts the bedroom in complete disorder and Tom in his mother's bonnet. The next illustration shows Tabitha entering the room. The author interrupts to promise the reader she will make a larger book about Tom some day. In the last pages, the Puddle-ducks have lost the kittens' clothing in a pond, and they have been looking for them ever since.
Background
Helen Beatrix Potter was born on 28 July 1866 to barrister Rupert William Potter and his wife Helen (Leech) Potter in London. She was educated by governesses and tutors, and passed a quiet childhood reading, painting, drawing, visiting museums and art exhibitions, and tending a nursery menagerie of small animals. Her interests in the natural world and country life were nurtured with holidays in Scotland, the Lake District, and Camfield Place, the Hertfordshire home of her paternal grandparents.
Potter's adolescence was as quiet as her childhood. She grew into a spinsterish young woman whose parents groomed her to be a permanent resident and housekeeper in their home. She continued to paint and draw, and experienced her first professional artistic success in 1890 when she sold six designs of humanized animals to a greeting card publisher. She hoped to lead a useful life independent of her parents, and tentatively considered a career in mycology, but the all-male scientific community regarded her as an amateur and she abandoned fungi.
Potter had maintained contact with her last governess Annie Carter Moore and had grown fond of her children. Through the 1890s, she wrote the children story and picture letters. Mrs. Moore recognized the literary and artistic value of the letters and urged her former charge to publish. Potter liked the suggestion, and, in 1900, revised a tale she had written for five-year-old Noel Moore in 1893, and fashioned a dummy book of it in imitation of Helen Bannerman's 1899 bestseller The Story of Little Black Sambo. Unable to find a buyer for the tale, she published it for family and friends at her own expense in December 1901.
Frederick Warne & Co. had once rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the booming small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the recommendation of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours, and on 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit was released.
Potter continued to publish with Warnes. Early in July 1905 she bought Hill Top, a working farm of 34 acres (14 ha) at Sawrey in the Lake District with profits from her books and a small legacy from an aunt. On 25 August 1905 Potter's editor and fiancé, Norman Warne died suddenly and unexpectedly. Potter became deeply depressed and was ill for many weeks, but rallied to complete the last few tales she had planned and discussed with Warne.
Miniature letters
Potter created a series of miniature letters for child fans between 1907 and 1912. These letters were written as from her characters and intended to continue their lives outside their tales. Each letter was folded to represent an envelope, and addressed to the child recipient; there was a tiny stamp in the corner drawn with a red crayon. They were sent to the children in a miniature post bag Potter had made herself or in a bright red toy tin mail box. "Some of the letters were very funny," Potter wrote, "The defect was that inquiries and answers were all mixed up."
Six letters involving the characters from Tom Kitten are extant. Invitations for Christmas Eve "Indian corn and dancing" were sent from Sally Henny Penny "at Home at the Barn Door" to Tom, his sisters, and the Puddle-ducks. Tom accepts for his sisters and himself and promises "[we] will all come, if our Ma doesn't catch us". Rebeccah Puddle-Duck however is "laid up with a sore throat" and writes Mrs. Ribstone Pippin (from The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan) asking for the loan of a red flannel petticoat to wear as a comforter. Mrs. Pippin replies:
I am sorry to hear of your sore throat, but what can you expect if you will stand on your head in a pond? I will bring the flannel petticoat & some more head drops directly.
Other Tom Kitten publications
The following year, in October 1908, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers was published, which again featured Tom Kitten, as well as his mother and sisters.
Tom Kitten's Painting Book was published in June 1917 with a cover by Potter depicting Tom standing at an easel, paint brush in hand. It was the second of Potter's three painting books for children, following Peter Rabbit's Painting Book of 1911 and preceding Jemima Puddle-Duck's Painting Book of 1925. The books were composed of pairs of pictures with short, appropriate texts at the foot of each page. When the book was opened, the fully coloured picture on the left page served as a model for the child artist to follow while colouring the outline picture on the right page.
Peter Rabbit's book was abridged in 1917, and seven pairs of pictures were cut to create Tom Kitten's Painting Book. One new pair of pictures was added to Tom's book and three new pairs of pictures to Peter's book with the result that there were eight pairs of pictures in both books. Jemima's book would also feature eight pairs of pictures. In addition to painting instructions, Tom's book told the child artist "[Y]ou can colour these pictures quite nicely with Crayons." The accompanying illustration depicts three kittens playing about a painting book and several crayons lying on the ground.
Two Peter Rabbit music books by Christopher Le Fleming were published in December 1935 under the combined imprint of J. & W. Chester, Ltd. and Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd.. The first book contained six easy piano solos and the second book six easy piano duets. Both books were intended for children aged ten to twelve years. The fifth piece in the book of solos was "Tom Kitten" and the fourth piece in the duet book was "The Puddle-Ducks Take a Walk". Potter thought the music charming but too difficult for children to perform. She supplied six illustrations for the first book and twelve for the second book because it was a collection of duets. "I have been very long over them," she wrote Le Fleming, "Doing them at odd times in a busy season of the year. Some are better or worse than others." She had difficulty with the ducks. "The ducks are least satisfactory. I am having another try at Pit Pat Puddle." Chesters assured Potter her preliminary pencil sketches could be reproduced nicely but, in the end, they were inked-over by another artist without Potter's knowledge. She was disappointed with the results. Both volumes were released in 305 by 240 millimetres (12.0 in × 9.4 in) paper or board cover formats.
Merchandise
Potter asserted her tales would one day be nursery classics, and part of the process in making them so was marketing strategy. She was the first to exploit the commercial possibilities of her characters and tales with spinoffs such as a Peter Rabbit doll, an unpublished Peter Rabbit board game, and Peter Rabbit nursery wallpaper between 1903 and 1905. Similar "side-shows" (as she termed the spinoffs) were produced with her approval over the following two decades.
After Potter's death in December 1943, Frederick Warne & Co. granted licences to various firms for the production of merchandise based on the Potter characters. Beswick Pottery of Longton, Staffordshire was one of the first and a porcelain figurine of Tom Kitten was one of the first ten Beswick Potter figurines released in 1948. Tabitha Twitchit, Mr. Drake Puddle-Duck, Rebeccah Puddle-Duck, and Mittens and Moppet were released either as single figurines or in combination with other characters. A Tom Kitten mug, plaque, and tableau were issued. In sum, 12 Tom Kitten figurines were released by Beswick between 1948 and 2000.
Crummles of Poole, Dorset began producing small enamelled boxes beginning in 1975. Three boxes had lids depicting characters from Tom Kitten: Tabitha Twitchit scrubbing Moppet's face, the Puddle-Ducks diving for Tom's lost clothes, and an image of Tom Kitten holding his book taken from the book's endpapers. Tabitha Twitchit sewing Tom Kitten's button on was depicted on the lid of a Huntley & Palmer biscuit tin produced between 1974 and 1978.
Stuffed toy manufacturers had sought licensing rights for the Potter characters as early as 1906, but it was not until the 1970s that an English firm was granted worldwide rights. Their labour-intensive products were unprofitable however, and in 1972, The Eden Toy Company of New York became the exclusive manufacturer of Potter characters. A plush Tom Kitten dressed in his finery was one of the first ten characters released in 1973. He was released as a bean bag in 1999.
Schmid & Co. of Toronto and Randolph, Massachusetts was granted rights to Beatrix Potter in 1977 and produced character-related merchandise over 18 years. In 1977, Tom Kitten was one of the first ten character music boxes released by the company. Another music box featuring Tom and playing "My Favorite Things" was issued in 1990, and a music box featuring Tabitha Twitchit and playing "Lara's Theme" was released the same year. In 1983, Tom Kitten was one of the first six flat ceramic Christmas ornaments issued by Schmid. Drake Puddle-duck, Rebeccah Puddle-duck, and Tom with the Butterfly were released in 1984. Scenes from the tales were produced as flat ornaments in 1987 featuring Tom and Moppet, and Drake Puddle-duck in Tom's clothes. In 1991, Schmid manufactured a 3-dimensional Tom Kitten ornament, and in 1992 a Tabitha Twitchit ornament. Another 3-dimensional Tom ornament was released in 1994 before the company closed in 1995.
Reprints and translations
As of 2010, all of Potter's 23 small format books remain in print, and available as complete sets in presentation boxes, and as a 400-page omnibus. Tom Kitten is available in an electronic format.
The English language editions of Potter's books still bore the Frederick Warne imprint in 2010 though the company was sold to Penguin Books in 1983. All the printing plates for the 23 books were remade from new photographs of the original drawings by Penguin in 1985; the entire Peter Rabbit series was released in 1987 as The Original and Authorized Edition.
Potter's books have been translated into nearly thirty languages, including Greek and Russian. Tom Kitten was released in braille by the Royal Institute for the Blind in 1921 and in the Initial Teaching Alphabet in 1965. The tale was translated and released in Dutch in 1946 as Tom Het Poesje and again in 1970 as Het Verhaal van Poekie Poes. It was released in Danish in 1946 as Tom Kitte, and in French in 1951 as Toto le Minet. Twelve Potter titles including The Tale of Tom Kitten were under licence to Fukuinkan-Shoten of Tokyo, and released in Japanese in the 1970s. In 1986, MacDonald observed that the Potter books had become a traditional part of childhood in both English-speaking lands and those in which the books had been translated.
Adaptations
- In 1971, the character of Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit appeared in the finale of the Royal Ballet film, The Tales of Beatrix Potter.
- In 1992, the tale was adapted, along with The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, as an episode on the animated BBC anthology series, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends.
- The character of Jemima Puddle-Duck, along with one of Tom Kitten's sisters, Mittens, appear in the 2012 CGI animated television series of Peter Rabbit in Nickelodeon.
- The character of Tom Kitten is set to appear in the film Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway voiced by Damon Herriman.
