Big (Caldecott Medal Winner & Coretta Scott King Honor Title)
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4.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Caldecott Medal! A Coretta Scott King Award Author and Illustrator Honor book, a National Book Award finalist, and a New York Times bestseller! This deeply moving story shares valuable lessons about fitting in, standing out, and the beauty of joyful acceptance, from an award-winning creator.
The first picture book written and illustrated by award-winning creator Vashti Harrison traces a child’s journey to self-love and shows the power of words to both hurt and heal. With spare text and exquisite illustrations, this emotional exploration of being big in a world that prizes small is a tender portrayal of how you can stand out and feel invisible at the same time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This ode to big self-love from Harrison (Sulwe) begins with a smiling, brown-skinned baby girl who has "a big laugh and a big heart/ and very big dreams." Through a series of emotionally centered, affectionate digital images set against dreamy chalk pastel backdrops, this smiling, bouncing baby becomes a child who "learned and laughed and dreamed and grew and grew and grew. And it was good... until it wasn't." The dancing, playful child becomes the subject of cruel playground taunts when she gets stuck in a swing, and receives criticism from a teacher that "made her feel small." Overwhelmed by others' derision, the girl runs away from a dance rehearsal in which she's made to wear plain colors and embody a mountain instead of a flower. A moving several-spread sequence, which includes a gatefold, portrays the overwhelmed child as increasingly cramped within the pages—and others' judgments—before she gives the words back ("These are yours./ They hurt me") and makes room for everything she loves ("I like the way I am"). Full of important truths about adultification and anti-fat bias, Harrison's deceptively simple telling tenderly offers the self-affirming beliefs that kids are kids in any body and that it's okay to take up space. An author's note concludes. Ages 4–8.
Customer Reviews
The message is not just for kids 4-8
I read this to my goddaughter. She said the grownups in the book should not tell the little girl to be like everyone else. I cried at the end because she is correct. Seeing the little girl tell the world that she doesn’t need their permission to be who she wants to be is a powerful statement. And the illustrations ties it all together beautifully.