Tattine

Tattine is a children's novel by the American children's author Ruth Ogden (real name Fannie Ogden Ide, 1853–1927), first published in New York and London by E. P. Dutton and Ernest Nister. The book is short, illustrated, and the surviving first-edition record runs to about 48 pages. The story centers on a little girl named Tattine. Sensitive and observant, she loves the animals around her, especially the family's two setters. One day she sees the two beloved dogs follow their instinct to chase and injure a wild rabbit, which leaves her caught between emotion and morality: she loves her dogs, yet her heart aches for the wounded creature. Around this event the book depicts her daily life with family and friends, country walks and imaginative outings, and her gradual understanding of animal nature, responsibility, and compassion through a series of small "scrapes." The work touches on the theme of "nature" and "nurture" in a gentle tone: instinct is not necessarily evil, and love can guide people to treat others and the weak kindly. It belongs to the typical late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Anglo-American children's book style—leisurely in plot, clear in moral meaning, well suited to reading aloud and parent-child reading, and a vivid sample of the tastes of children's literature in that era.