Big Cat, Little Cat

Starred review from December 19, 2016
Like a Japanese brush painter, Cooper (8: An Animal Alphabet) uses bold, black lines to trace the outlines of a white cat; it roams through an apartment, playing with yarn and gazing at the bird feeder. Then a black kitten arrives, and the white cat shows it “when to eat, when to drink, where to go, how to be.” “Big cat, little cat,” Cooper writes as the two sleep embraced, their curves a rhythmic composition of black and white. The two grow ever closer until, with little warning, the white cat “got older, and one day he had to go... and didn’t come back. And that was hard. For everyone.” The black cat is pictured alone on the page; the next spread pulls back to reveal its human family, all bereft. Even younger readers will understand their grief. But when a white kitten arrives, the story begins again: “The cat showed the new cat what to do. When to eat, when to drink, where to go, how to be.” With quiet grace, Cooper delivers the message that love persists through loss. Ages 3–6. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill.

Starred review from December 1, 2016
The circle of life in a cat-loving household."There was a cat // who lived alone. / Until the day // a new cat came." The big white cat meets the little black cat and shows it how to be a cat: when to drink and when to eat, where to potty, and when to nap. The black cat grows up, and the two do everything together: climbing, hunting, exploring, and (sometimes) going wild--but just for a short time. Years go by, and the white cat gets older. One day the black cat is alone...and that is hard "for everyone." (Here there's a black silhouette of a family of humans). Then...one day, a little white cat appears, and the black cat shows it how to be a cat. "Big cat, little cat." Cooper's gentle tale of the loss of a feline friend is perfect bibliotherapy for those who have lost a loved pet. His deceptively simple, fluid black-and-white line drawings bring all aspects of cat life to the page. And the subtle background colors of selected spreads--yellow for happy times, gray for sad--effectively convey the emotions. A hard book to read for anyone who has lost a feline family member but a heart-healing message all the same. (Picture book. 3-8)

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Starred review from February 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 1-Bold and simple illustrations perfectly depict life with cats. Elegant, expressive black line drawings on white backgrounds capture the essence of all things feline and call to mind the work of Clare Turlay Newberry and Nikki McClure. The book follows a lone white cat who gains a small black companion, their life together, and the eventual loss of the elder cat ("Years went by-and more years, too-") and ends with the addition of a new kitten. The spare text does an excellent job of conveying the story from the animals' point of view. Readers are told that "the older cat got older and one day he had to go...and didn't come back. And that was hard. For everyone."

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
Preschool-G It's all about simple text and clean lines in this picture book about feline camaraderie. Cooper certainly loves and understands cat behavior, as exemplified in his various poses of cats at rest and in action. A big cat (white) welcomes a new little cat (black) to the household, and shows it when to eat, when to drink, where to go, how to be, and when to rest. The white cat is outlined in black lines on generous white space as the two partake in these activities; the black cat is profiled in silhouette, with only one tiny white dot for an eye. As the years go by, the black cat grows bigger, and eventually the white cat has to go. A silhouetted family mourn along with the black cat. But soon a little white cat arrives, and the now-big black cat teaches it all the same lessons. In a final double-page spread the two dream happily, completing the concept of the circle of life in loving contentment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from March 1, 2017
Spare in both text and illustration, this is an affecting, unsentimental picture book about the cycle of life. Cooper (Train, rev. 1/14; Farm, rev. 5/10) often takes detailed looks at broad topics. Here his focus is smaller and the details are almost entirely gone, replaced by minimalist art that rivets our attention on a housecat and its kitten companion -- and then, after the passage of years and the death of the first cat, the now-grown second cat's companion. There was a cat // who lived alone. / Until the day // a new cat came. // Big cat, little cat. Small black-and-white vignettes scattered on pages of clean white space depict the cats' daily activities; these dynamic pages are punctuated, as the book progresses, by double-page spreads with colored backgrounds that feature large close-ups. These interspersed spreads serve two purposes: they mark downtimes in the story (after a flurry of activity, the cats always take a rest together), and they mark the passage of time. For example, the first such spread shows the larger, older white cat curled up with the little black kitten; the second spread, several pages later, shows the two cats, now of equal size; the third spread (the last illustration in the book) shows the black cat curled up with a new white kitten. Cooper's thick black lines produce figures full of kinetic energy and personality. The circular nature of the story is beautifully reinforced by the repetition in both art and text, and the result is at once realistic and comforting. martha v. parravano

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)