Too BIG To Miss!

LITTLE BROWN & COMPANY, 2023

I rarely begin a post about a book for little kids with the cover at the top, and seldom with such a large version of the cover. In this case, it felt like my only choice. I'm asking  you to see, immediately, that this picture book, this book for "little kids" is a very big deal. Apart from the obvious medals indicating that I am not alone in this opinion, it was also selected as best fiction picture book by bloggers, receiving the CYBILS AWARD in that category. 

Please, meet this remarkable book. BIG is written and illustrated by the multi-talented VASHTI HARRISON. Those medals on the cover represent the most prestigious of the many annual awards- Caldecott Gold Medal, National Book Award Finalist for Children, and Coretta Scott King Honor as Author and Illustrator. 

So what's the BIG deal about this book? Can you guess by looking at the cover? I thought I could, and I connected with the potential of its contents before even cracking the cover. The little girl under that BIG word, BIG, is adorable. Her pink ballet tutu is adorable. Her young body looks strong and intentional. And yet, do as I did. Look a bit closer. Check out her eyes. Under her uncreased forehead, below her precious pompom hairdo, those eyes suggest something deeper than intention. 

(Once I finally got my hands on this book for a close-up exploration), my eyes rested on this cover for many minutes. Those eyes hold her story within a dab of deftly placed and angled black line. There is commitment, persistence, and pain. Here we see a child who has lost some of the joy of childhood, one who makes her choices from a place of deep pain and self-healing, but not from spontaneity or trust. She is no longer crushed by the negativity BIG has conveyed but instead elevates it and owns it. It's unfair to think of such a young and adorable child needing to stand on her own, but she has been made to do so. If you can get that from the cover, you'll approach the story you're about to read with the significance it deserves.

With tender-yet-potent minimal text, with expansively emotional and evocative illustrations, with power-laden colors, Harrison addresses a particular issue within Black-girl communities. It is one that also tugs at every boy or girl who has ever felt the pivot from "being big" as a growing-up joy and accomplishment to recognizing "big" as negative. Subtly or literally, moments occur in the lives of children who are larger than average, in height or mass or even per SLsonality, when such a thing as "TOO BIG"  becomes the sharp tip of a universal social spear. That message comes in traditionally-sized clothes, in overt name-calling, in role-assignments, in rejection by peers and even from teachers and parents. Those pink-toned loving words of earliest encounters (caring, considerate, graceful, fun, creative) are buried under darker-hued labels and intentions (cow, moose, not right, TOOOOO anything...). The emotional tattoos of these shifting "assigned identities", including mocking laughter, add weight to the burden she feels, stealing away her true self. 

I don't dare reveal the ways in which my exposition of the story is conveyed within the pages, but it includes her shifting relative size in relation to the pages of the book and a powerful double gatefold-expansion to fully reveal the monstrous-sized pain imposed on this suffering young child. The resolution lies within her, not in the hands of apologies, or of well-meaning "fix-it" or "help you" adults. Her own gentle spirit eventually finds its footing and returns their insults and pain without venom, offering instead her rejection of their impact on her true self. Once she releases the pain within herself she charts her own path to acceptance and self-love, to reclaiming the beauty of wearing pink, of movement, and of grace. She claims her identity, body and soul, and has found power in knowing that BIG is not BAD.

The author note indicates personal experiences that led her to write this, but also explores the documented pattern of Black girls (and boys, too) being seen as older, more mature than their ages, and "too big" to be children. Society does have adultification and anti-fat bias that mandates conformity for many children, but especially Black children. This book matters and its many awards mean it will stay in the canon of available titles across generations, thank goodness. 

I sincerely hope that adults, even those without children, will read this and spend time considering their place within it. As a lifelong teacher, I view my own approach and unaware biases about students who "take up too much space", physically or behaviorally. Working with students identified as having issues in the general classroom meant I also actively taught young people to conform, to "fit in". To my conflicted shame. As an older adult woman, my memory of childhood (despite photograph evidence to the contrary) is that I was fat and not a good fit in a family of slender siblings. Body image, especially for young girls, is a dominant and harmful force in modern American society. This book brilliantly addresses the specific issues related to Black youth, but it has much to say to all of us at any age. 

The author uses the verb "return" in her back note- as in return the playfulness and fun and innocence of childhood to all of our children. 

It's a BIG ask, but each of us has a role in this process  we can't afford to ignore.