Project Cat, by Nellie Burchardt (writer) and Fermin Rocker (illustrator)

A chapter book from 1966. I had assumed the title meant “Project: Cat,” as in the kids have made it their project to acquire a cat. In fact, it’s “Project Cat,” as in cat in a housing project.

The housing project the kids live in doesn’t allow pets, so when they find a pregnant stray cat, they care for it and feed it outside, all the while trying to hide it from anyone who might do it harm or shoo it away. The cat is a pretty realistic scared stray cat, but the story comes to a less realistic but delightful conclusion.

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The story is simple but sweet, and the illustrations are very cute. I looked up the illustrator, partly because of his remarkable name, and discovered that he wrote The East End Years: A Stepney Childhood, which is described thus at Goodreads:

Fermin Rocker was born in the East End of London in 1907, the son of Rudolf Rocker, the famous anarchist theorist, activist and disciple of Kropotkin. A book illustrator, and painter, in exploring his origins as an artist, Fermin conjures a moving and colorful picture of his remarkable father, of Anarchism and of the Jewish East End. Heavily illustrated by the author.

BOUGHT.

Project Cat[image error]

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The East End Years: A Stepney Childhood[image error]

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