title: Kitty and Mr. Kipling: Neighbors in Vermont
author:  Lenore Blegvad 
description: Grade 3-5This fictionalized tale of a young Vermonter who spends a magical year getting to know the famous author combines a number of lovely elements. Kitty is the daughter of pragmatic New Englanders. Their small town is thrown into chaos when the Kipling family moves in, partly because Mrs. Kipling's brother, Beatty Balestier, lives there. Kipling is very kind to young Kitty, involving her in his family life and telling her stories from his work in progress<i>The Jungle Book</i>. As the seasons pass, the girl's sense of happiness fades as the relationship between the hot-tempered and profligate Balestier and the Kiplings deteriorates. Eventually, charges are filed when Balestier threatens to kill Mr. Kipling, and Kitty knows that it is only a matter of time before her friend returns to England. Erik Blegvad's soft drawings give readers a good sense of time and place. Kitty's personal growth allows her to accept that with life comes some pain, and that not everyone is perfect. An afterword gives biographical information about the Kiplings. While the book accurately depicts their time spent in Vermont, Kitty and her family are fictional creations. However, much of Kipling's dialogue is taken from written accounts of the time. This is a fast read, and a good recommendation for those looking for historical fiction for younger readers.<i>Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  # Table Of Contents
  
  
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  Rudyard Kipling  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # THEY
  
  
  ### Rudyard Kipling
  
  
  
  
  
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  One view called me to another; one hill top to its fellow, half across the
  county, and since I could answer at no more trouble than the snapping forward
  of a lever, I let the county flow under my wheels. The orchid-studded flats of
  the East gave way to the thyme, ilex, and grey grass of the Downs; these again
  to the rich cornland and fig-trees of the lower coast, where you carry the
  beat of the tide on your left hand for fifteen level miles; and when at last I
  turned inland through a huddle of rounded hills and woods I had run myself
  clean out of my known marks. Beyond that precise hamlet which stands godmother
  to the capital of the United States, I found hidden villages where bees, the
  only things awake, boomed in eighty-foot lindens that overhung grey Norm