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THE NEW SMALL PERSON

Page history last edited by RichiesPicks 9 years ago

22 March 2015 THE NEW SMALL PERSON by Lauren Child, Candlewick, February 2015, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-7810-4

 

“Now I know that you’re just my little brother

And I don’t expect you to get everything just right

But I think you ought to use a little more sense than what you’re using

And maybe then things would be all right”

-- Suzanne Vega, “Brother Mine” (her first song, at age 14)

 

“But he got better when he grew up. Right? Guess again. I just got off the phone with him fifteen minutes ago and he is still in trouble.”

-- Writing about my little brother four years ago, in a review of another great, older-sibling/younger-sibling picture book.

 

“Elmore Green wished the small person would go back to wherever it came from. But Elmore’s parents explained that this was NOT possible.

“The small person got bigger. And things got much worse.”

 

THE NEW SMALL PERSON is a notable picture book about the challenges of dealing with a younger sibling, as told from the perspective of the older sibling.

 

As an eldest sibling, I’m forever drawn to these stories about children trying to cope with younger siblings. I know the feeling of exasperation experienced by big brother Elmore Green in THE NEW SMALL PERSON.

 

Of course, Elmore’s little brother, Albert, is not really that bad. His crime is wanting to share with Elmore and trying to emulate him.

 

Suddenly, Elmore has to let Albert choose some of the TV shows to watch. He has to put up with Albert touching, sitting on, and even wearing his stuff. To Elmore’s dismay, Albert loves to follow him around, and then, to top it off, Albert moves into Elmore’s bedroom.

 

What happens next? When Elmore has a nightmare, guess who is there to comfort him? It turns out that it’s not so bad to have a little brother around!

 

One of the notable aspects of THE NEW SMALL PERSON is that the two brothers are Black. The world of children’s literature has significantly evolved since Molly Bang received a Caldecott Honor a generation ago for the groundbreaking TEN, NINE, EIGHT. But the first two librarians with whom I shared THE NEW SMALL PERSON echoed my feeling that there are still too few picture books with characters of color.

 

Putting up with a little brother has been my life. Or was. It’s kind of weird to be writing about a sibling story now that my troublesome little brother is gone. Like Albert, he really wasn’t that bad to have around, and now I really miss him.

 

Richie Partington, MLIS

Richie's Pickshttp://richiespicks.pbworks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/richie.partington

Moderatorhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/

 

 

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