Black Cat, White Cat

Reviewed by: Deidre Walsh - Goodall Memorial Library, Sanford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: October 13, 2015

Review

Nominating for Cream of the Crop for is simplicity A simple concept book about opposites and friendships. Black cat only goes out in the day and white cat only goes out in the night. Each wants to see what the opposite time is like. They meet each other and become friends. Each showing the other the joys of night and day respectively. The illustrations are done in black pencil and colored digitally. They are simple, sparse and clear. You just imagine the tails and whiskers swishing and twitching. Only three colors were used - black, white, and a surprise color at the end. The text and illustrations are in harmony. The test is simple and too the point. A non-reader could enjoy the book as much as a solid beginning reader. This is so simply and sparingly done yet it conveys such a wonderfully detailed concept of opposites and friendship. There is a wonderful reveal at the end once the two cats have kittens together. The reader will have a fun time revealing this to children at story time. Kids will want to guess the color of the kittens, and boy will they be surprised. How to explain that to kids? :) Although, there is a hint given on the back end papers of the book. This will be a popular title. Be prepared to buy multiple copies. One on one sharing and small group settings will work best. My only issue with this book is it's size. It is small, making it difficult to use in a large group story time setting. Otherwise, an absolutely wonderful package.

Overall Book Score: excellent