You're Too Small!

Tad the mouse is discouraged when his friends around the farm say he is too small, but he proves to them that he is just right when all the animals are locked outside of the barn and only Tad is small enough to sneak in. Simultaneous.

PreSchool-Grade 2–Tad the mouse is too tiny to help with anything. He can't push a wheelbarrow full of watermelons for Pig, stack hay with Goat, paint a wall with Cow, or sit on Goose's eggs. However, when the animals are locked out of the barn and dinner's waiting inside, the mouse is just the right size to crawl through a crack in the wall and let everyone else in. His friends rejoice and Tad answers them with a loud "BURP" as he finishes a piece of the biggest pie. The bright watercolor paintings reflect the size difference between the mouse and the other creatures. In one picture, Tad is shown as being much larger than a ladybug, a bee, and a snail, effectively demonstrating that he is not the smallest creature in the world even though he may feel like he is. Children will enjoy the humor in the illustration of Tad trying to sit on Goose's eggs. Readers who have often been told that they are too small to do something will relish the fact that this creature is able to save the day. Suggest this book for one-on-one sharing or pair it with Tana Hoban's Is It Larger? Is It Smaller ? (HarperTrophy, 1997) or Steve Jenkins's Big & Little (Houghton, 1996) for a storytime exploring the concept of size.–Sheilah Kosco, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA
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