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Reviewed by: Taylor Coonelly, Elementary School Librarian Title: Are You Small?
Author: Mo Willems Publisher: Specific House
Year: 2024 Good for Grades: 1-4 Genre/Type of Book: Nonfiction
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: N/A Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: Nominated for the CYBILS award for Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: A fun and simple text that discusses a scientific topic like size/relativity in a way that is accessible to elementary audiences. |
Review:
A fun and simple text that discusses a scientific topic like size/relativity in a way that is accessible to elementary audiences.
Mo Willems is focused on the idea of size and comparison of things, a topic that is important in order to learn about more complex scientific concepts. He has also written Are You Big?, discussing the same idea but in the reverse. The author asks the reader 'are you small', and then goes on to list different things that are smaller than the reader but larger in comparison to other things, like a hamster or a tooth. There is also little notes referring to the item and how it can seem bigger/better even though it is small in size, like a crumb of a cookie being yummy. The end repeats the same question to the reader, but then shows a picture of an adult, illuminating that while the reader might not be small compared to some things, they are compared to others.
I really liked this book, but not as much as the other book the author has written on this topic. I think the idea of the book was to cater to a young elementary audience, but some of the really small concepts that the author brings up are too complex to be understood by a young student. The text is readable as a read-aloud, and does prepare students for deeper conversation about size and comparison. The illustrations are fun and imaginative, and I love how the items previously referred to remain on the pages as larger than the next item. There is also a little glossary/note at the back of the book that discusses how big each item featured in the book actually is, and that the drawings are not to scale.
I think that this book could be used in a variety of elementary curricular contexts (but with some context needed for some of the ideas); as a read aloud, a introduction to a lesson on size/comparing/self/scientific ideas like cells and atoms/etc. Overall, an informational and engaging elementary book.
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