Big things are contrasted with little things--and then tiny things--in this stylish, tall and skinny picture-book exploration of relative size by Lizi Boyd (Inside Outside, Flashlight).
It's not the usual contrasts of big and small, like elephant and mouse. For example, Boyd pairs a "Big Zebra" with a "little broom." Zebra's standing on his hind legs with his broom, sweeping up a big pile of... something like soap flakes. What is that pile? Each graphically bold, gouache illustration has a crisp linocut quality, a perfectly composed tall rectangle in black, white and gray, with red spots of color. And each illustration, simply labeled, hints at a bigger story. There's a "Big Forest." What's that "little tent" doing there? Who might be camping there? As the book progresses, "tiny" things are added to the mix, labeled in a tiny font. There's a "Big Penguin" wearing a "tiny hat," perched atop a "little iceberg." A story-within-a-story quietly unfolds between little bear and Big Bear. On the opening page, "Big Bear" contemplates the empty "little chair," but a few pages later, "little bear" is reaching up to an empty "Big Chair." Later still, little bear (next to "little chair") is sweetly reaching up to "Big Bear." In a warm and friendly scene, "Big Bear" is sitting on his big chair next to "little bear" on his little chair.
Boyd's final spread celebrates "tiny stories... everywhere!" in a graphic mélange of the book's menagerie... and by this time, happily, little bear's made it all the way into Big Bear's lap. --Karin Snelson, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness