BIG IS BIG (AND LITTLE, LITTLE)

Bright, bold collages of torn paper, pastels and tempera fairly jump off the pages as Barner and Lewis team up with this concept book in rhyme for lap listeners. “Big is big and little, little / If you are somewhere in the middle” starts off the series of bouncy, whimsical couplets. The enormous whale takes up most of the double-page spread, while the jolly middle-sized fish chases after the tiny one, not realizing the danger. Well-known animals are chosen to illustrate the concepts, but some of the ideas might be a little over the heads of the target audience: “Young is young and old is old, / pink and blue—or silver and gold.” The picture of a presumably older hippo and two teeny hippos does not help the reader understand the idea. The more straightforward ideas are the most successful. “Day is day and night is night. / One is dark and one is light.” Still, preschool teachers will enjoy this somewhat slapdash examination of the oft-taught idea of opposites. (Picture book. 2-5)