The Power of Words
A Review by Dr. Jerry Flack
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning. - Maya Angelou
Words can sing, exalt, encourage and cause children to soar. But, they can also sting, hurt, and cause children to stop believing in themselves and their dreams. BIG tells such a story. The picture book is proof that a book need not have a sea of words to be astonishing, triumphant, and forever memorable. It is, indeed, a book about words and the exceptional power they manifest.
The time frame of the young unnamed African American girl’s story is brief. Readers first meet an infant when her story begins and follow her early love to the later pain she experiences in the primary grades.
The narrative begins simply.
Once there was a girl
with a big laugh and a big heart
and very big dreams.
In her first crucial years big is a wonderful thing to be. She grew and grew and that was good. But, by at least second grade the connotation of the word big changed. The sweet heroine lives in a culture in which being physically large is no longer a good thing to be. Small is good. Even Santa Claus tells her, “You’re a big girl, aren’t you?” One particular disaster is the cause of great emotional harm. She is too big to fit into the playground swings. Her classmates heap verbal abuse on her tender heart. They laugh at her. They call her a whale and a moose. Even her teacher admonishes her. “Don’t you think you’re too big for that?”
Being big is no longer a good thing. To be too big is likened to being a cow. The young girl dreams of wearing a bright and cheerful pink costume to be in the school dance recital, but the instructor in charge tells her that there are no pink flower costumes that will fit her size. “You’re just too big!” Rather than be a pink flower, she is dressed as a gray rock. She can be uninspired background scenery. She will be less noticeable in a gray costume.
The creative and loving child learns early on to become as invisible as possible. To be seen is hurtful. When she shed tears, words from adults sting even more. “Aren’t you too big to be crying?”
Heroically, the big little girl transitions from gray back to pink in her costume choice and in her self love. She hands hurtful words back to both peers and adults who have caused her pain and made her stop believing in herself and her dreams. She likes herself just as she is. She enjoys being a girl. She is good, creative, imaginative, smart, funny, sweet and pretty. She imagines being a pink flower girl dancer. She does not want to be in the background hidden away as a gray rock in the dance recital.
The artwork of BIG is exquisite. In her author notes, Harrison explains her color palette. Pink symbolizes tenderness and love. Pink flowers suggest innocence, joy, playfulness, and happiness. As a child she was afraid to wear pink because she believed it made her stand out when she believed she needed to be invisible. Gray is more the color of being invisible, of not being seen.
Words and images complement each other in this great book of art. Harrison accentuates her heroine’s size as she grows to dimensions so big that her image can barely be squeezed upon double-page spreads. One spread is even vertical to emphasize the heroine’s second grade size.
When she bursts forth and transitions from being a victim of cruel words about her physique, she joyfully fills up fold-out double pages. She also transitions from gray costumes back to being a soaring pink flower who may be physically large, but who is also beautiful in so many ways. Hand written words are superimposed on lovely spreads. The big girl is good, creative, kind, compassionate, smart, funny, sweet, and gentle.
Harrison’s use of chalk as a primary medium emphasizes the young age of the child who on her own is learning how to draw images of herself. The facial expressions tell her story as well as do the words. She grows in size, but she also moves from early childhood joy to great sadness and pain, but ultimately to a lovely expression of herself as perfect. The front and back cover artwork is the visual equivalent of a beautiful poem.
In 1922, the American Library Association (ALA) created the Newbery Medal to honor the best children’s book of the previous calendar year. It is the oldest children’s book award in the world. In 1938, the ALA created the Caldecott Medal for the year’s best illustrated children’s book. In 2024, the Caldecott Medal was won for the first time ever by an African American woman. It is about time! Another note of interest. BIG is Vashti Harrison’s first children’s picture book.
Home & School Activities
Words Can Sting. A great many gifted youths are used to the cruelty of words that disparage their talents. They have grown up hearing themselves referred to with such uncomplimentary words as nerd, dork, dweeb, egghead, oddball, screwball, nut case, and fruitcake. Some youths even go to the extreme of hiding their giftedness. After readers have read BIG, encourage them to write and illustrate a story about how words have made them want to be concealed or unseen. Their stories need not be complete books. Perhaps they can share a particular incident when they were deeply wounded as the heroine of BIG is when she becomes stuck in the seat of a school yard swing. She is so hurt that she wants nothing more than to become invisible. Hopefully, these young authors and illustrators can also reveal how they have overcome the cruelty of bullying words.
Meet Vashti Harrison. Vashti Harrison shares some of her personal experiences with the cruelty of words in her Author’s Note. Readers can also learn more about this highly gifted and creative adult at her Internet website, vashtiharrison.com. In addition to being an award-winning illustrator of numerous books for children, Harrison is a prize-winning documentary film maker. In particular, she has created videos that highlight her Caribbean heritage and regional folklore. Enterprising young investigators can actually view scenes from her films. Once readers have explored online resources about Harrison, encourage them to write and illustrate a profile of her life and accomplishments for an imagined online journal about great African American women creators.
Understanding a Word. Readers can profit from exploring the denotation and connotation of a single word. Encourage readers to select one word and take several steps to better understand its meaning and potential social and emotional impact. Sample words may include beauty, freedom, love, faith, hope, perfection, honor, and pride. Once readers have chosen a single word to explore they can begin by writing their own definition of the word. Next, they can locate images to create a collage that visually symbolizes their special word. They can write about a personal experience in which the meaning of their word was paramount. They can further their word project by searching for a story, poem, or song that illustrates the significance of their word. They can ask family members and classmates what they believe the word means and record their answers. A vital step is to search the denotative meaning of the word in a dictionary, preferably an unabridged one. When young researchers have completed these tasks they can assemble all the parts in a word portfolio. Their own artistic image may serve as the cover to their collected works.
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. - Rudyard Kipling
Harrison, Vashti. BIG. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2023. Caldecott Medal, 2024. Coretta Scott King Honor Medal, 2024. National Book Award Finalist, 2023.
