Nini Lost and Found Read online

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © 2010 by Anita Lobel

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Lobel, Anita.

  Nini lost and found / Anita Lobel. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Nini cat enjoys her outdoor adventure until she ventures too far and cannot find her way home.

  ISBN 978-0-375-85880-2 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-375-95880-9 (lib. bdg.)

  [1. Cats—Fiction. 2. Lost and found possessions—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.L7794Nip 2010

  [E]—dc22

  2008048721

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-98255-1

  The illustrations in this book were created using gouache and watercolor.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  To Billy always

  &

  Nini forever

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  First Page

  About the Author and Illustrator

  One day, when the sky was very blue and the world outside was more inviting than ever,

  Nini saw that the door had been left open.

  She ran down the stairs.

  Out onto the deck.

  Into the garden.

  Away from the house, Nini looked back. “It is cozy in there,” she thought.

  By the warm fireplace.

  In the tickly yarn.

  On the soft couch.

  Under the big quilt.

  Oh, but it was great out here.

  Grasses teasing her nose.

  Flowers smelling so good.

  “I like it,” thought Nini.

  Nini walked on. Slowly at first.

  Then faster.

  Soon Nini had gone far away from home. She did not look back again.

  Nini roamed the woods.

  What soft mosses.

  What great leaves.

  What good tree trunks.

  And, all around, so many

  interesting little creatures!

  “Oh, this is really, really,

  really nice,” thought Nini.

  But then

  daylight began to fade.

  Darkness began to fall.

  Strange noises hovered.

  Strange shapes lurked.

  Nini smelled danger.

  Out of the dark woods,

  a big bird hooted

  and flapped its wings angrily.

  A slinking animal barked

  and made ready to pounce.

  A large, furry animal growled

  and lumbered closer.

  “This is not so nice

  anymore,” thought Nini.

  She scooted away.

  She found a hiding place.

  “I can’t stay here for long,”

  she thought. “Those bad animals

  are sure to find me.”

  Nini was trapped.

  Nini was scared.

  “I don’t like it at all.

  I want to go home.”

  It was then Nini heard, from far, far away,

  the voices she knew and loved.

  “Nini cat, where are you?

  Where have you gone?”

  Nini didn’t know what to do.

  “If I make a move,

  those bad animals will find me.”

  “I must be brave,”

  Nini thought.

  And she ran.

  As fast as she could.

  Away from the woods.

  Toward the voices.

  Toward the light.

  Toward the open door.

  The door closed.

  Nini was home.

  “You bad, bad, bad little cat.…”

  Nini was scolded.

  She meowed, meowed, meowed.…

  The meows meant,

  “I am sorry, sorry, sorry.…”

  “We know,” she was told.

  “We are glad to have you back.

  We love you, Nini cat.”

  It was good to be inside, back home.

  With friendly and cozy things to hug.

  And smell.

  And eat.

  “Out there is all right,” Nini thought.

  “For a little while.

  But, oh, in here, at home,

  is much, much, much nicer …

  for now.”

  ANITA LOBEL is well known and well loved by picture-book fans young and old. Some of her standouts include her Caldecott Honor Book, On Market Street, written by Arnold Lobel, and Alison’s Zinnia, which she both wrote and illustrated. Her illustrated version of Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas, which she set in nineteenth-century Brooklyn, is a perennial favorite.

  Nini Lost and Found is based on her own cat Nini’s adventures at her country home in Vermont. Her tabby is also featured in an earlier book, Nini Here and There, which was a New York Times picture-book bestseller and was called “an exemplar of all a picture book can be” by Daniel Pinkwater on National Public Radio.

  During most of the year, Ms. Lobel lives in Manhattan, where she brings the country indoors with her many paintings of flowers.

  You can visit her gallery of flowers and other paintings, as well as see a list of her books, at www.anita-lobel.com.

 

 

  Anita Lobel, Nini Lost and Found

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