Urban Literature for Children: A chance to share the city with all children

Black Cat by Christopher Myers is an invitation for suburbanites to leave their quiet, tree-lined streets and for children living in urban settings to see their environment reflected in a strikingly beautiful book about a day in the life of a feral cat. Myers is the artist who was awarded a Caldecott Honor for his illustrations in his previous book, Harlem, and he received the Coretta Scott King Award for Black Cat.

“Black cat, black cat, cousin to the concrete, creeping down our city streets, where do you live, where will we meet?”

Poetic language and extraordinary collage and painted illustrations collaborate to reveal the beauty, light, shapes, and images of city streets. The descriptions of the black cat’s antics are exciting, dramatic, and compelling.

In and of itself, this books is a great choice for modeling effective writing and illustration to young authors in writer’s workshop. Black Cat is also perfectly suited to bring language experience to students who speak English as a second language or who have other language challenges.

A “prereading” view of the book, looking at just the pictures, along with prompted discussion, would give an adult the opportunity to bring forth vocabulary that labels locations, verbs, and facts about the city or the cat that are suggested by the illustrations. Once the language-learner has discussed the pictures, the adult is able to share the elegant poetry with the learner, who now has the background with which to discuss the images created by the extraordinary poetic language.

Lastly, Black Cat is a book to be enjoyed by people of all ages, and to remind us that there is beauty and wonder everywhere!