SPOT & DOT

A cat trails a runaway dog on a gleeful sprint through a bustling city.

Just as Spot (the cat) sees a new neighbor kid pinning up a “Lost Dog” poster, the feline also notices that very dog (Dot) pawing through trash down the street. When Dot takes off, Spot decides to follow. Keeping up with them in Cole’s staggeringly detailed urban scenes couldn’t be more breathlessly fun—or more challenging. Squinting eyes inevitably settle on myriad vignettes embedded within the double-page, full-bleed, black-and-white spreads of exacting ink crosshatches and linework. Life happens everywhere (in apartment windows, at the bakery, on the street, inside the library, at the dog park, in the flea market). People and animals wave, sneer, smile, pull, lift, doze, fetch, paint, read, and wag and flick tails within these wonderfully congested urban scenes. Interpreting quotidian moments as a voyeur feels immensely pleasurable, and inevitably readers will dawdle and dream about each tiny circumstance—but then remember Spot and Dot and get back to work looking for the oval markings on the creatures’ flanks that distinguish them from all the other cats and dogs. So many cats and dogs! When they both return home, there’s palpable relief on their owners’ faces and in readers’ hearts.

An extraordinary search-and-find that delivers the hum and intrigue found in a city’s multitudes and also the singular feeling of returning to one’s individual place in the world.