Big Cat, Little Cat

by Elisha Cooper

There was a cat
who lived alone.
Until the day
a new cat came . . .

And so a story of friendship begins, following two cats through their days, months, and years until one day, the older cat has to go. And he doesn’t come back.

This is a poignant story, told in measured text and bold black-and-white illustrations about life and the act of moving on.

Genres: Picture Books, Cats, Animals, Childrens, Death, Friendship, Pets

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 14, 2017

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Change is inevitable and in the circle of life the student eventually becomes the teacher. A sweet and tender story of friendship, love, life, and loss.

[Cheryl Gladfelter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book to read if you want to start sobbing at the information desk.

Seriously though, very beautiful.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't read it at work unless you want your coworkers to find out what your ugly crying face looks like.

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s the circle of Life. This story is simple and very profound for the very young. I don’t understand the artwork though. It is simple like the story with a white cat and black cat, but surely as an award of children’s art in storytelling, this should not have been considered. I really don’t understand. On the other hand, the story is very touching. This got lots of feels in the end. It’s a nice little story. I guess the simple childish art does go with the simple idea. I waffle between a 3 and a 4. The story does hit pretty deep though, so the art gets a 2 and the story gets a 4.

The niece thought this was sweet and she gave this 3 stars too. Now this story made the nephew sad and he gave this 4 stars. To get an emotion out of one of them is pretty amazing. Plus, they both want a cat right now. It’s a good thing we can’t have a cat because the nephew is so rough, he would be scratched up like a scratching post. He and the cat would be at war.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I am a grown ass woman, this little picture book still ripped my heart out. I started thinking about the great circle of life and then about my cats dying and now I'm crying again. Super.

[Tina Haigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was cute and sad at the same time. It's about a cat who is lonely until a kitten comes to live with him. The cat teaches the kitten everything it knows. The main themes are loneliness, grief, and moving on. The word count is small so I would recommend it to kids ages 4 to 8.

[La Coccinelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a simple but poignant story about the circle of life, told from the point of view of cats. I'm not sure what else to say about it. The illustrations are simple, but they get the point across. The rhythm and routine of a cat's life is brought to life through the basic text. And the feelings of loss are portrayed so well that even a dog person like myself felt sad for the cat when it was left on its own.

This will probably be appreciated more by cat lovers, so keep that in mind when you look at my rating. There's nothing really wrong with this book (other than perhaps implying that a new kitten will make everything better... which is a little simplistic). But the sentiment is sweet, and this book will likely find an audience with young and old cat lovers alike.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMGG..this 50 year old woman almost started crying at this children's book! Totally didn't expect it. What a beautiful book on the circle of life, friendship, death, mentoring. So many life lessons rolled into one little book. Bravo, Author...Bravo! This is one to read to children and purchase worthy. Such a powerful little book partnered with equally powerful, yet simple illustrations.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although part of me does definitely kind of wish that the accompanying illustrations (of the cats and of the cats' human family) were not just in very plain black and white, I definitely and certainly do still very much consider Elisha Cooper's Big Cat, Little Cat a strongly rated four star book for me, first and foremost because in author/illustrator Elisha Cooper's presented narrative, the simple, poignant but always gentle and yes optimistic message of life going on and of another and new cat coming along to restart the cycle of life and of one cat teaching the other the ins and outs, the ways and means of being a cat, has been so emotionally sweet and delightfully satisfying. And yes indeed, on the other hand, and if I do consider how the accompanying illustrations with their standard black and white hues also and totally mirror the simplicity of the narrative, of Elisha Cooper's printed words, even though I do tend to usually enjoy book illustrations considerably more if they are not just black and white but contain many if not a multitude of different colours, well yes, I do have to admit that in Big Cat, Little Cat the combination of the simple black and white pictures and the equally simple and straightforwardly lovely and heartfelt words do create a perfectly sweet and lovely marriage of text and images.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Went ahead and read this on the information desk despite the warnings about crying at work, and you were all right!! I managed to keep it together, only barely.

A beautiful, deceptively simple story about death, grief, and the cycle of life. The illustrations are also simple, in black and white with few lines; despite or perhaps because of this, they're very emotional and effective.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sat down to eat a turkey sandwich and got destroyed by this book. I'm glad my husband is in the yard and not here to catch me weeping over imaginary cats.

I don't even LIKE cats! 😩😭😩😭😩😭

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ONLY issue with this book is that after the older cat "had to go" and "didn't come back," "that was hard." "Until the day a new cat came."

And that bothers me - as the human companion of Ersatz, Gizmo, Buzz Aldrin, St. John Bosco, Brother John, and Babe, I can say definitively that it remains hard to deal with the demise of an elderly cat well after the new kitty comes.

But other than that, lord love Elisha Cooper drawing cats.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those picture books that is truly universal: I can see both kids and adults loving this book. It's simple and honest and very, very sweet in a completely pure sort of way. It'd be a great book to use to talk about death with kids in a non-scary and straightforward manner. I think I loved it because of the way it depicts the life of house cats.

[Robin]

A tear-jerker about two cats becoming friends, and one of them passing away. A beautiful, though quite sad, book about the circle of life.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the feels.

I hadn't read the reviews for this and was caught completely unprepared; one of my staff came in as I finished this and asked me if I was ok? No, no, not really.

Beautiful, simply-written, elegant, from the heart, lovely, graphic, and excuse me while I go cry again.

[itselv]

A story about love and loss. Tender yes, but I wished it was a bit longer and more in depth. Gotta say tho, it hit me, I knew it was about love and relations but didn’t expect it to be about death and loss too.

[RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, unfortunately turns out that I can't use it for storytime because crying profusely in front of families is probably bad form

[Pilii · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me puse a llorar en el baño.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet little story of two cats learning to live together.

[l♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I READ THIS IN A FUCKIN TIKTOK?!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

cried like a baby. 5 stars.

[Flo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Afterward they dreamed.
Their days were full.

Years went by—
and more years, too—
...

July 19, 2021

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: There was a cat who lived alone. Until the day a new cat came. The cat showed the new cat what to do. When to eat, when to drink, where to go, how to be, when to rest. Big cat, little cat.

Premise/plot: A simple yet profound book on life, love, and legacy. Dare I say we're talking meaning-of-life stuff here? The story at its most basic: Big Cat trains Little Cat on how to cat. Little Cat grows up to be a Big Cat. The two enjoy each other very much. My favorite line, "For five minutes each day they went wild." Everyone is sad when 'Big Cat' dies. But a new kitten joins the family a while later. And so once again there's a Big Cat, a Little Cat, and a whole lot of lessons to be learned.

My thoughts: I was tempted to just have my review be a song clip of Disney's Circle of Life. And this book is about the circle of life. But I think it goes beyond that. Personally I think it's all about LEGACY. Big Cat taught Little Cat everything. And that 'everything' stuck with him. Big Cat is not forgotten. Big Cat's legacy lives on and will always live on. At different points in our lives we're all "Big Cats" and "Little Cats." We have the opportunity--the privilege--of passing on what we've learned, what we've been taught to the next generation. We can remember and honor those in our lives that have come before, that have loved us, that have raised us. And one way to do that is to keep engaging in life, in being a part of the community, of being involved with children, contributing in our own small ways to the future.

I think the book is also about change. Nothing stays the same forever. Little Cat had to grow bigger and bigger and bigger. Big Cat had to grow older and older. That's just how life is. You can't stay a kitten forever. No matter how much fun being a kitten is, there's a time when you're a CAT. That doesn't mean all the fun is gone from life. You can still be a kitten-at-heart I suppose. Change is inevitable. It can be sad. But it can also be happy. There is joy and sorrow in life.

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 10 out of 10

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just for cat lovers. Timeless... I seriously thought it was an older Caldecott honor book that I'd somehow missed. Lovely.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for cat stories, and this one pleased me very much. A big cat lived alone until a kitten entered the household. The big cat mentored the smaller cat. They were playmates for life until the older cat left and did not return. Then the cycle continues with the once younger cat mentoring a new addition. The black and white illustrations reminded me of a cat story I owned as a child entitled Rich Cat, Poor Cat. While my book may have had a little more color and grayscale to it, the illustrations were sparse, just like this one. The simplicity of the illustrations is effective. It's deserving of its Caldecott honor.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simply told story of two cats, a white cat showing the other, a black cat the ropes around the house until they become fast friends.

The White Cat gets old and dies and the family and Black cat miss the him very much.

But after a while a new cat comes and it is now the Black Cat's turn to show the other the ropes.

A good book for young readers.

[Ama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not crying. You are crying.

Simple and sweet, but with a big impact.

[Ms. B · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a cat person, you'll love this book! It reminded me of cats I've owned. It's the simple story of two cats who love each other's company.

[Kirstin Morrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful children's book, dense with meaning, and it forms a deep connection with the reader.

I read it with a 4-year-old and a six-year-old, and it was very effective at communicating a number of key concepts with the 4-year-old. It was a springboard for her to ask many questions about friendship, life, growth, and loss.

It also does a brilliant job with the power of perspective and the unreliable narrator in storytelling.

I recommend this book very strongly. It has a lot of repeat readability. The illustrations are deceptively simple but very effective and evocative.

I got my 75-year-old husband to read it and he also thought it was very good -- so I can say from personal experience that it's good for 4 to 75 year olds, ha ha.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a tiny kitten is introduced into the life of a solitary older cat, the older cat becomes a mentor to the younger one, who eventually grows up and becomes the inseparable companion of his erstwhile teacher. When Big Cat grows old and eventually dies, Little Cat is, together with his human family, left desolate. Until the day that a tiny kitten is introduced into his life, and he finds himself moving from the role of Little Cat to that of Big Cat...

A spare and poignant tale is paired with simple but immensely powerful illustrations in Big Cat, Little Cat, which explores the cycle of life, death and new life through the story of three felines, all of whom live in the same city apartment. The text is rather plain, full of declarative sentences - "There was a cat," it begins - but is all the more moving for its simplicity. The narrator, having told us that Big Cat has grown old, gone away, and not come back, declares "And that was hard," an understatement that packs quite an emotional punch. The artwork, done mostly in black and white, with a few pages containing a sepia background, is stark but expressive. There is so much white space on the page - and isn't it refreshing to see an artist who isn't afraid of blank space?! - that the figures of the cats stand out all the more, making every detail more visible, more endearing, more powerful. A beautiful little book, Big Cat, Little Cat is one I would recommend to anyone looking for children's stories about companionship, love, loss, and healing.