Bigger! Bigger!

Toddler-PreS--This deceptively simple story stars a little pigtailed girl in a hard hat building progressively larger buildings, initially from blocks. But after the first page, the illustrations enter her imagination, as she builds a dog house ("Big!"), a house ("Bigger!"), skyscrapers ("Bigger! Bigger!") and ultimately a whole city ("Biggest!"), which is then knocked down by an enormous, bald baby in a diaper ("Boom! Boom! Crash!"). Her fantasy crashes down with the buildings and she is left with a pile of blocks and downcast expression, until the baby holds out a block in offering and the book ends with them building cooperatively ("Stronger! Stronger!") The story is told almost entirely with illustrations, and just single words of text. Patricelli's trademark round-faced, oval eyed tots are in full evidence here, with lots of primary colors and textured pastel-style art. She emphasizes the increase in size of the buildings both by switching points of view and increasing the size of the font. The story is quite simple, but youngsters will need to make the leap to fantasy. The idea of building is always popular, and the concepts of forgiveness and cooperation are imbedded seamlessly into the story. VERDICT Patricelli fans, teachers looking to explain concepts of size and behavior, as well as libraries looking for simple books that leave lots of room for interpretation will find a lot to enjoy here. A worthwhile addition.--Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT