Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life
with audio recording
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Young Hewitt Anderson is sweet, smart, polite—and very, very small. This warmly humorous tale with audio is “proof that, when it comes to heart, physical size isn’t the whole story” (Kirkus Reviews).
Young Hewitt Anderson is his parents' pride and joy, and they love him so. Hewitt is sweet, smart, polite -- everything a boy could be -- except Hewitt is small...very small...teeny-weeny, in fact.
Descended from a long line of giants, the J. Carver Worthington Andersons take their height very seriously indeed. You see, without exception all of the many J. Carver Worthington Andersons have been giants until now. And poor Hewitt -- hidden in the floorboards, trapped in the flour vat, lost in the bedsheets -- has his struggles being tiny. Oh, his parents worry: How will their son manage to live in a world of big things? Leave it to Hewitt to prove the power of being small.
Inspired by the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk," the inimitable Jerdine Nolen tells an original story of bravery and the power of the individual. Kadir Nelson's imaginative and loving illustrations create a world where smallness rules -- a world that children will want to return to again and again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As far as the J. Carver Worthington Andersons, descendants of giants, were concerned, "big things were best!" But when their son Hewitt is born normal human size, the Andersons learn to shift their perspective, in this feel-good tall tale from the creators of Big Jabe. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson can't quite understand why Hewitt doesn't measure up, size-wise, but "they adored their puny, frail, delicate bundle of joy" and spent long hours worrying about him and helping him to have "a big life with big things in it!" Hewitt loves curling up in the palm of his father's hand and riding on the brim of his mother's bonnet. And best of all, the fellow's size is a bonus in several instances when he is able to save his parents from trouble. Gradually, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson come to understand that "Hewitt was perfect just as he was." Nolan revels in using descriptive and often rollicking turns of phrase to establish her larger-than-life scenes and characters. But as always, she infuses the proceedings with a warmth and lighthearted humor that makes her tale universally appealing. Nelson's depictions of the dark-skinned mountain-like Mr. and Mrs. Anderson and their comparatively tiny boy provide a strong yet fanciful backdrop for the tale. His supersaturated oil paintings feature a playful approach to size, scale and perspective that will instantly hook young readers. Ages 5-8.
