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Good to Be Small

by Sean Cassidy

The first children’s book that Sean Cassidy, an art instructor in Orangeville, Ontario, illustrated was Stephanie Simpson McLellan’s The Chicken Cat. His memorable illustrations played a strong role in the success of the book, which won the Ruth Schwartz and the Mr. Christie book award.

In Good to Be Small, Cassidy’s first effort as both writer and illustrator, the tale, as well as the prose, is much more simple and direct than the ruminative and slow-moving style of The Chicken Cat. On a farm, a lamb has disappeared. While Mama Sheep laments, a barnyard mouse declares that she’ll find the missing lamb. The sheep are sadly pessimistic, bleating, “too small, too sma-a-a-ll,” but Mouse replies, “sometimes it’s good to be small.” The rest of the book illustrates the truth of her assertion. Climbing the roof of the barn, she spots the lost lamb, then hitches a ride on the back of a fox, a turtle, and an owl, before landing lightly on the lamb and riding her back to the barnyard.

As in The Chicken Cat, Cassidy’s subtly eccentric visual style is a large part of the book’s success. His illustrations, rendered here in soft-palette acrylics, are set against an impressionistic background. There is an odd but interesting contrast between the pop-eyed cartoon figures of Mouse and the turtle, and the more realistic figures of the owl and the fox. Cassidy employs a full range of perspectives, and some of the best images are those of Mouse dropping, legs splayed, onto the next transport animal.

The theme of the story – that the smallest among us can often make the greatest contribution – is not a fresh one, and the author can’t resist ending with a jokey shrug that doesn’t quite fit the tone of the rest of the story. But Cassidy understands the power of repetition. Having Mouse drop on the animals and whisper instructions into their ears becomes a simple yet resonant motif.

 

Reviewer: Nathan Whitlock

Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside

DETAILS

Price: $18.95

Page Count: 32 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 1-55041-743-7

Released: Sept.

Issue Date: 2002-9

Categories: Picture Books

Age Range: ages 3-5