How Big is the World, by Britta Teckentrup (our review)

We picked this one up from the library simply because it looked sweet. In the end, I think it is one of my new favorite kids' books.

Here is what Calvin has to say about it:

"The book is about a world, and a mole, and a seagull. The mole asks everyone 'how big is the world'; He asks a spider, a mouse, and a horse, and a seagull, and a whale. The whale takes him and travels through colors and all kinds of stuff, and then Little Mole says 'I miss my family', 'then it's time to take you home' says Whale. Then Mole went home and told his papa that 'the world is as big as you want it to be', and then he fell asleep."

He says he likes the book because "it has the whale and [mole] thanks the whale", and that the whale is his favorite part. I like this book because the pictures are sweet and the story is simple, yet it carries a big message, most obviously told in the first exchange when, after Little Mole asks her "how big is the world", the spider answers "the world is as big as my web. My web is the world." How many humans suffer from exactly this same misconception?

Simple and sweet, yet powerful in its own way, albeit mostly for the parents doing the reading at this age, this book gets an A+ from us.