The Lost Kitten

One day, Hina and her mother open the door to find a scrawny little kitten waiting outside with its mother. The kitten has something wrong with its eye, and it seems as though the mother cat wants Hina and her mother to look after it, so they take it in. Unsure of its surroundings, the kitten sneaks away where Hina can't find it. Hina looks everywhere for the kitten, getting more and more upset, until she finds it curled up in her sweater.

Though at first glance this might seem like a simple story, The Lost Kitten is full of a poignant understanding of the mother-child relationship, and the anxieties that little ones experience when mum isn't around. Hina's remembered experience of being temporarily lost means that she can empathise with the kitten who is nervous without its mother cat in a new house, and the soft, nostalgic illustration conveys Hina's little world perfectly.