Allira Tee, Tiger & Cat, Berbay Publishing, August 2020, 40 pp., RRP $25.99 (hbk), ISBN 9780648529156
Tiger and Cat are best friends. They dance, drink tea, go on adventures together. Nothing can separate them. At least, so they though. But when Tiger founds out that he has to go to Tiger Camp to “earn his tiger stripes” their little world is shaken up like never before.
Cat cannot grasp the idea.
But you already have stripes, Tiger!
Tiger explain that he must learn to be a real tiger, and love behind their life of tea and tennis.
In a nutshell, this gorgeous young reader, preschool appropriate picture book, discusses friendship and loss. Cat needs to cope with his feelings of sadness at his friends leaving for a while. How can we best do this? He meets a human girl in a tiger suit who helps him articulate those feelings on paper. But more than this, it is about who we really are, and how we know this when things are expected of us, things we maybe don’t really want to do…
Good thing is, as my son says that while “Adults over think things”, children can often see the simple truth in tales. Tiger & Cat is one of those simple tales of friendship and belonging told in sweet dialogue and adorable illustrations.
Reviewed by Belinda Raposo
