The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. Bestselling creator Harrison has produced another classic that belongs on every child’s shelf-this is one that will nurture little ones and help them to see the beauty in themselves.Ī healing balm with the power to make the world a bit kinder. Textured illustrations in a soft, predominantly pink palette endear the protagonist to readers, while spare, carefully crafted text delivers an important message of self-acceptance and combating anti-fat bias that never feels preachy or overdone. After that, she knows how to separate the words that do and don’t belong to her and what to do with them.

Finally, she is able to see clearly, and she decides “to make more space for herself” by pushing the boundaries of the page in a powerful fold-out spread. She lets her feelings out in tears that form a puddle of words-the criticisms of others as well as more positive ones: imaginative, creative, compassionate. On wordless spreads, all alone, the girl fills the tightly constricted pages, as if trapped by their borders. On the playground and in ballet, where she used to feel joyous and free, the girl is humiliated. Adults are frustrated with the girl because of her size. But at a certain point, getting bigger becomes tinged with negativity. When she was a baby, being a “big girl” was good. A young Black girl who is told she is too big learns which labels to keep.

Dream big little one vashti harrison