I’m Not Small

A brown-skinned child encounters his family’s backyard alone in this experiential exploration of relative size. “Sunshine! Daytime! Time to play outside,” straightforward text reads as the child dons yellow boots and, after his mother declares simply, “You’re a big kid now,” heads into the yard—“on my own!” Despite his newfound autonomy, though, he quickly notices that his stature is small against the natural world, shown in a full spread whose perspective renders the protagonist tiny against tall trees and a vast sky. A second turnabout occurs on subsequent pages, which show the child’s comparative size against the family’s pets—a dog, cat, and rabbit—and diminutive birds and insects (an ant is “really, really, really small. I could crush it with my foot!”), all of which indicate to the protagonist that “I am big!” And when his mother comes out to offer breakfast, he realizes that though he might enjoy his bigness, “sometimes I am happy to be small.” Crews (A Girl Like Me) renders her story of a kid finding his place in a variably sized world through vividly sketched, textural digital collage whose lens zooms in and out to portray moments of adventure, exploration, and safety in the wide world. Ages 4–8. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt and Zacker Literary. (Mar.)