Is It Big or Is It Little? - Hardcover

Rueda, Claudia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802854230 ISBN 13: 9780802854230

Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2013

Synopsis

The cat-and-mouse chase that winds through the pages of this delightful book holds a few unexpected surprises for everyone. To a mouse, almost everything is big -- but to the cat that starts chasing him, things look a bit different.

Bold illustrations and simple text will not only introduce young children to basic descriptions but also allow them to explore the idea of relativity and help them understand the many ways of seeing the world around them.

About this title

About the Author

Claudia Rueda is a Colombian author and illustrator who hascreated many stories for children. Her most recent titlesinclude No (Groundwood) and Huff and Puff(Abrams Books). Visit her online at www.claudiarueda.c,om.,

Reviews

PreS-Gr 1-This extremely simple book explains how the meanings of even very basic words can differ, depending on the perspective of the observer. For example, the first spread features a small black mouse gazing up at what is to him a large red ball of yarn (easily mistaken for a balloon, as it has no texture). He asks, "Is it big?" The following spread shows a black cat much larger than the yarn ball preparing to pounce on the mouse asking, "Or is it little?" Other illustrations deal with deep/shallow, light/heavy, long/short, scary/scared, and end/beginning. The artwork features clean white space, simple lines, and a palette of black, gray, and red. However, the colors are flat, with no value or shading-not much to engage the eye. There are some humorous touches but, while the point is made, there is not enough here to encourage repeated readings, even for the youngest audience, rendering this a marginal purchase.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A black mouse with a ball of orange yarn illustrates the relativity of concepts such as big and little. Each double-page spread carries a single short question, such as Is it deep? / or shallow? or Is it light? / or heavy? and each pair of spreads shows two contrasting views of the same object. The ball of yarn that seems big next to the mouse looks comparatively little when the cat steps over it. The mouse wades up to his middle in a deep puddle that is shallow to the cat. Beautifully designed, the book features simple, dramatic illustrations in black, grays, and burnt orange on white backgrounds. Created without shading, the forms are clean and eye-catching. While the short questions are the only text, a lively narrative unfolds in the pictures, where the scary cat, after encountering a fierce-looking dog, becomes scared. The mouse’s tale comes to the end, but for the cat’s tale, Is it the beginning? A clever play on opposites and their relative meanings. Preschool-Grade 1. --Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802854230
• ISBN 13: 9780802854230
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 26