A little cat lives in the streets of Aleppo. She basks on the tiles inside the mosques and the people come to play with her and tickle her stomach. Life is good in Aleppo until war comes. It brings helicopters and smoke, and humans in stompy boots. As life changes – food disappears and the streets become dangerous – the little cat feels lost and hungry and alone. Until a kind man appears. He takes her to a sanctuary where she finds other cats and food.
The Little War Cat is inspired by the true story of Mohammed Alaa Aljaleel, who drove an ambulance to help injured people and then set up a sanctuary to help the cats affected by the bombing of Aleppo. By telling the story from the perspective of a cat , we see the change from a happy city to the fear and hunger of being in a war-torn place and then the relief of finding shelter.
The illustrations make beautiful use of light and dark to convey the difference between safe times and times of war. As a life-long companion to cats I can also confirm that they beautifully capture the movements and personalities of felines.
People were affected terribly in the bombing and this is referenced by the character of a little boy. The cat’s story reminds us of all the beings who live in a city and it is also more familiar to very young readers. A cat is in trouble and gets rescued is something a small child who has never experienced war can process and it allows the human story to be introduced gently. The child in the book comes for help after the cat. This reduces the number of pages on which human crisis is shown in the story but allows the reader to make that mental leap – war affects all beings and there are people in the world affected by war.
This is a great read for empathy. It introduces the concept of war in a very accessible way. It is also a story of hope and love – that for every person affected by war, there will be a safe shelter.
- The Little War Cat by Hiba Noor Khan and Laura Chamberlain is available now from Macmillan Children’s Books, RRP. £12.99 (provided for review)
