The Biggest Smallest Thing - Sara de Waal - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Sara de Waal

ILLUSTRATOR: Ana Stretcu

GENRE: Children's Picture Book

PUBLICATION DATE: April 8, 2025

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A clever picture book about looking at things differently. Creative storyline, diverse characters, good message, amazing illustrations. A good option for little readers, but better if read with adult guidance.

Plot Preview:

Mo is quite excited about the upcoming Scintillating Science Symposium as he wishes to be a chemist when he grow up. He is determined to win the event, and he is sure that he will. After all, his classmates are quite creative, but none are as smart or as into science as him. One of his friends Muriel, even declares that she wants to be a cat when she grows up.

As the teacher declares the theme for the symposium: “turn something small to something big”, Mo’s head is already bursting with ideas. Which one should he opt for? Can he win the competition?

The storyline of this picture book is good, and its execution is also quite good. I liked how all the ideas on the big day were science-based without necessarily appearing too scientific. I hope this book shows kids (and adults) how everything in our life involves science.

The plot contained a lovely variety of ideas about turning something small to big. Every idea was imaginative and suited to the child who presented it. This is even more special because the kids in the class have various hobbies, ranging from sports to music to cooking and even body fluids. Thinking of something “small to big” for each of these areas of interest is amazing on the part of the author.

Mo is a good main character, even though he is not perfect. He is clear about his ambition, he is very imaginative, he evaluates the other participants’ capabilities so that he knows what he’s competing against, he is ready to edit and upgrade his ideas based on feedback, and he doesn’t throw a fuss even when something goes wrong. At the same time, he is also a bit overconfident, forgetful, and hasty. So his character offers children many life lessons on both what to do and what not to do.

However, the other main character, Muriel, confused me. Her life ambition was to become a cat, she was the least invested in thinking up ideas for the symposium, and her preparation was at the basic level. While her idea was definitely creative, I am not sure what signal the end result sends to kids: are they supposed to take things this lightly even during serious competitions? Does effort not always reap rewards? Is simplest necessarily the best? I have quite mixed feelings about this. Wise adults could take her character and glean out some positive lessons for their young ones. However, on the whole, I think Mo was a better character than Muriel, even though the book tried hard to prove the opposite.

Some of the words might be a bit on the tougher side for the target age group of 5-8 years, but none of the words are too complicated to explain. The layout is optimal for this set of readers, with not more than 10 lines per page, and the text being divided across manageable paragraph-sizes.

The illustrations are fabulous!. Not just bright and colourful but also diverse in the truest sense of the word! Many picture books these days show diversity in the classroom, but in this book, kids don’t just come in a variety of shapes, skin colour, hair colour, and hair styles (including corn rows!), but there is also a child wearing a hijab, one child in a wheelchair, and one child even has vitiligo. Even their class teacher is shown wearing a hijab. (That said, I don’t understand why she has been given a Western-sounding name like “Ms. Rawlinfort”. Why not grab this chance to teach kids that names from other cultures might sound different and not every name needs to be familiar to them?)

The book ends with some wonderful doable science experiments connected to the presentations made by the class during the symposium. An excellent ending to such a story.

Definitely recommended. This book is a great way of learning the importance of thinking out of the box, and would offer greater value if read accompanied by an adult. It would also be a great classroom resource for creative thinking and project handling, as long as kids don’t emulate Muriel blindly.

My thanks to Annick Press for providing the DRC of “The Biggest Smallest Thing” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.