Big and Small product reviews

When I saw that I was getting this book I was pretty happy, I knew my daughter would LOVE it. She's very obsessed with books at the moment and this would be a perfect addition to her collection.

When the book arrived miss 3 was very excited, we had to read it straight away, bedtime was too far away and she wanted to read it now. I think the bright colours and the well drawn illustrations drew her to it.

My daughter loved the adorable little animal pictures and the fact the the words rhymed. From an adults perspective, I find that rhyming words make books much easier to read and interact with. I loved how there was a hidden (or not so hidden for older people) message in the story about how everyone needs help at some point and even the smallest among us will be able to help someone when needed.

The book is about two friends, Big and Small, going out on an adventure. Climbing hills and crossing streams finds Small in need of help and almost every obstacle. Every time, Small needs to ask Big for "a little help, please." Once they are home and ready for bed it is Big's turn to ask Small for some help.

I love how polite this book is and encourages asking for help when needed while using manners. I've been trying to get my 3 year old to ask for help rather than her getting frustrated on her own for a while now, hopefully after a few more reading sessions with this book it will sink in for her.

Yesterday, I actually found my daughter taking mat time and reading this book to her 'classroom' of teddies and little brother. She did a very good job of remembering the words of the story and the overall message of it.

Overall I thought this book was well written and had good way of getting quite a unique message across, I haven't come across many children's stories with this particular message in it so it was lovely to see. The illustrations were very eye catching and really showed the friendship between Big and Small. I think this would be a great book for preschool children and classrooms to have because it portrays a good message and the words are easy to read.

Big and Small is a very popular book with the children I have read it to, ranging in age from 21 months through to 5.5 years. The younger ones liked the cute animals and the simple rhyming text. They also picked up on the repetition in the story very quickly and joined in. The older children understood the story more. They realised Big was called big because he was a big bear and Small was a small mouse (a big of basic maths). They also understood the story was about helping each other.

There is a lovely message in this story about how everybody needs help sometimes and just because you are little doesn't mean you can't help others. For most of the story Small needs help from Big but at the end it is Big that needs Small's help. The other lovely thing was that the characters used their manners. "A little help please" is the request we hear throughout the book. This is a phrase I have been encouraging my children to use.

Miss 5.5 was very pleased that after a couple of readings she was able to read the book without assistance due to the repetition in it. This has given her a huge boost in confidence with her reading. Miss 4, who wants to do everything her big sister does, had a good go at reading it too. Anything that encourages my children to read gets a thumbs up from me. It also probably helps that the text is in a very large font rather than the small fonts some picture books are in which is too hard for developing readers to focus on.

Personally I thought it was a very sweet story and I loved the illustrations. The facial expressions really showed the warmth in the relationship between the two friends. It is also shows the pain and fear when the friends are in need of help. This will be one book that I will be keeping on my bookshelf for many years as it is so lovely and popular with the kids.