Ruthven Todd. Space Cat. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. Charles Scribners Sons, 1952. Photo from Amazon.com
Space cat is a series of 4 books written in the 1950’s by Scottish novelist Ruthven Todd about Flyball the cat and his adventures in outer space. The books are filled with charming illustrations by Paul Galdone who also designed the set of 4 covers that have made the books highly collectible and hard to find. The Book isn’t in the public domain so I can’t send you to read them, but in 2018 the set was re-issued and is available for purchase at a reasonable price. Here’s the link to Amazon, but the books can be found at most major book stores. Click through if you’d like to see the other 3 book covers – they are fun!
Ruthven Todd. Space cat visits Venus. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. Charles Scribners Sons, 1955. Photo from The Retrofuturist
Ruthven Todd. Space Cat Meets Mars. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. Charles Scribners Sons, 1957. Photo from Amazon.com
Ruthven Todd. Space Cat and the Kittens. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. Charles Scribners Sons, 1958. Photo from The Retrofuturist
Some of my first science fiction! I have an old ratty set (actually they’re in Emily’s library) but I didn’t know they’ve been reissued.
Hmm .. Tangential but Andre Norton’s Star Kaat novels also spring to mind here…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Norton_bibliography#Star_Ka'at
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30385199286&searchurl=an%3Dandre%2Bnorton%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dstar%2Bkaat&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title3
https://www.google.com/search?q=Star+Kaat+books+Norton&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU834AU834&sxsrf=ACYBGNT8AzIYUyF9SGnJTLJjOPXNJK6JIw:1569252682136&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUw7nloefkAhVL7HMBHddnCaoQ_AUIEigB&biw=1589&bih=740