Not Little
by Maya Myers (Author) Hyewon Yum (Illustrator)
Just because you're really small doesn't mean you can't have a big heart. When the diminutive Dot stands up to a bully on behalf of an even smaller friend, she proves how big she can truly be.
Dot is the smallest person in her family and at school; even her name is small! People often mistake her for being younger than she is, but not when she tells them the square root of sixty-four is eight, nor when she orders from the grown-up menu at restaurants or checks out the hard books at the library. She may be small, but she's not little.
When a new boy named Sam joins Dot's class, she wonders if he's even smaller than she is. When she sees him getting bullied by a mean kid twice his size, she knows she has to do the big thing and stand up for him.
Maya Myers's debut picture book has a pitch-perfect voice that captures the inimitable Dot in all her fierceness, and Hyewon Yum's delightful pastel-hued artwork is its perfect complement.
- A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
- An ALSC Notable Children's Book
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School Library Journal
K-Gr 2--Dot, a girl with light brown skin and a big bun on her head, is well aware that her stature is on the small side. In fact, she's the tiniest one in her interracial family, as well as in her class. She feels insulted when she goes places and, "People look at me and ask me if I'm in preschool. Then I tell them that the square root of sixty-four is eight, or that Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia, or that my favorite Mars rover is Curiosity. I'm not little." At school, filled with a diverse student body, a new boy has arrived. Dot thinks he may possibly be smaller than she is, but she hasn't had the opportunity to find out for sure. The new boy, who is possibly of Asian descent, has bigger problems, though--a bully! Dot is not having it and sets out to prove her size once and for all. The charming illustrations are done in colored pencil on a white background; Yum's energetic art reflects the protagonist it portrays. "Though she be but little, she be fierce," indeed. VERDICT A recommended purchase for libraries where Patty Lovell's Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon is popular.--Tracy Cronce, Stevens Point Pub. Sch. District, WI
Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Publishers Weekly
Making her picture book debut, Myers creates a memorable hero in Dot, a diminutive brown-skinned girl who "may be small" but chafes at being treated like she's "little." She catalogs the indignities: "At the library, they ask if I'm sure I want to take out such hard books." When a clerk asks her mother, "Would your little girl like a sticker?" Dot yells, "I'm not little!" Then tan-skinned, bespectacled Sam joins her class; he might be even shorter than Dot, and she's immediately captivated ("I keep trying to get next to him so I can measure"). When a red-haired bully menaces Sam in the cafeteria, Dot realizes that something must be done--and she acts. Myers describes Dot's intervention in a second-by-second account, taking careful note of the emotions and sensations that she experiences ("I feel my heart beating very hard"), clearly conveying how it feels to be scared and intervene anyway. Yum (Grandpa Across the Ocean) portrays Dot and her world with simplicity and sensitivity in colored pencil textures and hues; a double portrait of the moment when Sam lets Dot know what her help means to him is a treat. Ages 3-7. Author's agent: Hannah Mann, Writers House. Illustrator's agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary. (July)
Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JUV039230 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Bullying
JUV074000 - Juvenile Fiction | Diversity & Multicultural
Courage
Bullying
Size
Body size
