COOPER, Elisha. Big Cat, Little Cat. illus. by Elisha Cooper. 40p. Roaring Brook. Mar. 2017. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781626723719.

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.” VERDICT A gentle, loving look at the life cycle of pets; young readers will be able to gain confidence in retelling the story using the text and the pictures. A must-have for all collections.–Paige Mellinger, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA

This review was published in the School Library Journal February 2017 issue.