Big Cat
Grandma is a cat lover, the biggest one in the neighbourhood, much to the annoyance of her neighbours who are fed up of all the strays she takes in ‘pooping in their flowerbeds and widdling in their garden sheds’.
The real trouble begins when, while searching for grandma’s lost glasses in the garden, Isobel discovers a very big cat. Without her glasses, short-sighted Grandma thinks this very large cat is ‘the cutest, prettiest, most handsome kitty cat.’ Before we know it, much to the chagrin of Grandma’s own cats, the big cat has settled in, eating them out of house and home. Sounds familiar? Adults will enjoy the references to Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea while children will enjoy finding the visual clues as to the big cat’s identity scattered throughout the book.
Pictures and colour fill the page and Emma Lazell’s bold illustrations really bring the characters and the story to life, particularly when two tigers appear on the doorstep with Grandma’s specs. The explosion of colour and the large-scale illustrations mirror her shock and alarm as she suddenly realises there are tigers in her house.
Lazell’s illustration style may be reminiscent of older books, but the text and humour in Big Cat is sure to delight contemporary young readers and their adults.
