Kit kneels by a blue basket of letters and gives a yellow-sun envelope to a smiling girl with round glasses at a partly open door.

A PICTURE BOOK

Kit’s Stairway Post Office

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Kit’s Stairway Post Office

Kit stands beside a red wagon full of letters outside a blue elevator marked “Out of Order,” holding a sun-drawn envelope.

Kit lived on the sixth floor of a tall brick building. Every Saturday, Kit wrote tiny letters at the kitchen table: “Thank you for the plants.” “Your soup smelled good.”

Kit put the letters in a red toy wagon and pulled it to the elevator. One special letter was for the new family on the first floor. Kit had drawn a bright yellow sun on it.

But the elevator doors would not open. A sign said, “OUT OF ORDER.”

On a stair landing, Mr. Ivo offers Kit a blue basket while Kit’s red wagon of letters waits at the top of the stairs.

Kit looked down the stairwell. Six flights of steps curled to the bottom. The red wagon bumped against the first step. “Bump-bump-bump. That is a lot of stairs!”

Mr. Ivo opened his door on the fifth floor. “Where are you going, postmaster?” he asked.

“To the first floor. But my wagon cannot go down all those steps.”

Mr. Ivo held out a blue basket. “A basket can ride on an arm.”

Kit and Rosa sit on a stair beside a rainy window, resting with a blue basket of letters and a red watering can.

Kit moved the letters into the basket. On the fourth floor, Rosa was watering a fern. “May I carry a letter too?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” said Kit.

By the third floor, the basket felt heavy and Kit’s arms began to wobble. “Let’s rest here,” said Rosa. They sat by the window and watched raindrops slide down the glass.

Mr. Chen drops a note into Kit’s full blue basket as Rosa stands beside Kit; a flower drawing and paper star are offered from nearby doors.

Lalu sebuah pintu terbuka. Mr. Chen peeped out. “Mail?” he asked.

“Kind mail,” said Kit.

Mr. Chen smiled and slipped a note into the basket. “For the new family. It says, ‘I make excellent pancakes.’”

As Kit and Rosa went downstairs, more doors opened. One neighbor added a picture of a purple flower. Another added a paper star. Soon the blue basket was full of cheerful notes.

At last, Kit reached the first floor. The new family’s door opened a crack. A little girl with round glasses peeked out.

“Welcome,” said Kit, holding out the letter with the yellow sun.

The girl took it, then saw all the other notes. Her smile grew wide. “All these are for us?”

“From the whole stairway,” said Kit.

Kit rides upward in a blue elevator with an empty basket and waves to neighbors waving from the surrounding stair landings.

That afternoon, the elevator was fixed. Kit rode back upstairs with the empty blue basket.

At every floor, someone waved. Kit waved back and stood tall in the elevator, feeling as tall as the whole building.