Bigger Than Me

3.7

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Author(s)

Erica Simone Turnipseed

Co-Authors / Illustrators

, Kara Bodegón-Hikino

Publisher

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Genre(s)

Inspiration

Age Range

Release Date

September 12, 2023

ISBN

978-1665900324

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Children discover the impact they can have when they band together in this picture book ode to how solidarity lifts everyone up.

Siblings Luna and Zion are feeling a bit overwhelmed. Big words keep rushing at them: Homelessness. Pandemic. Inequality. Recession. Unemployment.

They don’t understand the words, but grown-ups do, and the siblings can see how upset the words make them. Wanting to understand the words themselves, Luna and Zion spell them out with building blocks, but the words’ weight sends the blocks tumbling. So they recruit other kids to help them. Many hands make light work, and as the words are constructed from any materials the children can find, the words themselves grow lighter, and change: Equality. Kindness. Compassion. Liberty. Democracy. Freedom. Hope.

The words are still big, but not as heavy—ones everyone can carry, if we carry them together.

Editor review

1 review

Inspirational

December 23, 2023

Overall rating

3.7

Plot

3.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Bigger Than Me is a timely read as children have so much access to media and are exposed to big concepts that they do not understand. Media raises awareness but it can also bring a sense of foreboding, frustration, and hopelessness on what we can do as individuals to combat the negative events in our world. In this book, the children gather the community around them to make powerful art and collages full of inspirational words and a mural of influential people to keep faith in our ability to change the world for the better. This book would be a powerful introduction to the idea of civil rights, activism, and a biographical study of the people shown in the mural. Overall, this book would be most effective with older elementary children who can understand the symbolic themes mentioned and use it as a stepping point for further research.