Julie's post this week about Egg by Kevin Henkes took me back to my own Caldecott experience when Henkes won for Kitten's First Full Moon.

Here is another book that, like Kitten's First Full Moon, is mostly black-and-white and has minimal text. Like Henkes, Cooper's no-frills drawing style uses deceptively simple thick black outlines. And — of course — there are cats. First a big white cat, then a young black kitten who learns from the older cat and grows up to be even bigger. We see their individual personalities and their closeness as they play, eat, and nap. When the older white cat dies, it is hard for the black cat and for the human family, seen only in silhouette. When a new white kitten arrives, we have come full circle.

Black-and-white illustrations stand out these days because full-color books are so much more common. I get annoyed when the only reason a picture book is black and white is to get attention and appear artsy. That's not the case here. This is a story about pairs, told as simply as possible. What is simpler than black and white? I'm guessing some people will look for hidden racial meaning or allegory in this book, but in my opinion, they are barking up the wrong tree. (Remember Garth Williams's Rabbits' Wedding?) The best reason for the color choice becomes clear when Cooper highlights the yin and yang theme. Much of the book contains small vignettes of the cats scattered across a spread. We see that they are different from each other, but also complementary. To underscore the theme, Cooper stops the action three times with full-bleed spreads and a surprising yellow background. On each of these spreads we see two cats curled up together in a clear homage to the yin and yang symbol.

We've established that the real committee can't discuss an illustrator's previous books, but one thing I like about this blog is that we are not the real committee. One of the benefits of gaining a certain (ahem) age is that you get to see how an illustrator changes and matures.

I've been a fan of Elijah Cooper's illustrations since his first children's book in 1997 (Country Fair). His tiny gestural pencil sketches revealed close observation and an astonishing ability to depict motion. Every figure he drew had a specific individuality that brought it to life. His books didn't have much plot, but they were perfect for those rare children who are quiet observers. When he started making larger books with bolder illustrations (Magic Thinks Big, 2004), I had the feeling he was leaving his comfort zone in search of a more mainstream audience. In 2010, Beaver Is Lost seemed like a turning point: Cooper went back to his original sketchy specificity but added a clearer plot.

I think Big Cat, Little Cat is another turning point. Instead of light pencil line drawings that indicate figures and movement, bold black ink lines achieve the same goals. Each variation in line thickness adds to our understanding of what a character is feeling or thinking. The angle of an ear or curve of a whisker gives us information about each cat's state of mind.

Going beyond the flawless characterizations of the cats, Cooper's pacing here is a thing of beauty. He varies the rhythm with multiple small vignettes on one spread, solitary figures surrounded by white space on another, and — perhaps my favorite spread of all — frenetic playing when "For five minutes each day they went wild."

I could go on and on. I haven't even mentioned the emotional roller coaster when the big cat dies, everyone grieves, and then — get out the hankies! — a new kitten is introduced. Oh, and the satisfying repetition in the text when the life cycle starts over, punctuated by almost the same illustrations, but with slight differences.

Oh, my goodness. Someone pass me a tissue. It's time for you to talk while I compose myself.

Read the starred Horn Book Magazine review of Big Cat, Little Cat.

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