illustrated by Hyewon Yum
Available now from Neal Porter Books / Holiday House
People are talking about NOT LITTLE . . .
Maya Myers so perfectly and purely captures the voice of a small (not little!) girl with a big heart and a bigger personality. I was rooting for Dot from page one. I think Not Little is going to be huge!
Chris Van Dusen, New York Times best-selling author/illustrator of If I Built a School
With a pitch-perfect voice and beautiful illustrations, NOT LITTLE takes us on a wonderful journey through a day in the life of small, but not so little Dot, who really has it all – confidence, bravery, empathy, and an endearingly indomitable spirit. Love this book!
Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Caldecott honor–winning author/illustrator of Green and First the Egg
Wait until you meet Dot! Her attitude is spot-on. She’s the friend we all wish we had, and Not Little is a book that’s NOT to be missed!
Beth Ferry, New York Times best-selling author of Stick and Stone
The brave—and big-hearted—Dot serves as an easy-to-follow model for self-confidence and up-standing.
The Horn Book
Sure to be a big hit!
Kirkus Reviews
(read full review)
A little gem of a story that sparkles with a BIG message. We all need a big DOT in our lives!
LeUyen Pham, Caldecott honor–winning author/illustrator of Bear Comes Along
What’s it about?
Dot is the smallest person in her family and at school; even her name is small! People often mistake her for being younger than she is, but not when she tells them the square root of sixty-four is eight, nor when she orders from the grown-up menu at restaurants or checks out the hard books at the library. She may be small, but she’s not little.
When a new boy named Sam joins Dot’s class, she wonders if he’s even smaller than she is. But when she sees him getting bullied by a mean kid twice his size, she knows she has to do the big thing and stand up for him.
Reviews
Myers clearly channels her elementary school teaching experience in empathetically creating Dot and Sam’s recognizable exchanges about unfamiliar classrooms and playgrounds, tiptoeing through social dynamics and navigating new relationships. Yum’s enchanting color-pencil illustrations elevate Myers’s text with ingenious visual enhancements.
Shelf Awareness (read full STARRED REVIEW )
The plucky protagonist is able to use her big voice, conveyed loud and clear in Myers’s conversational text, to stand up for what’s right. . . . Dot’s polka-dotted shirt and pants in contrasting colors are accessorized with a bright-red kerchief, giving her a mini-superhero vibe. The brave—and big-hearted—Dot serves as an easy-to-follow model for self-confidence and up-standing.
The Horn Book
Myers describes Dot’s intervention in a second-by-second account, taking careful note of the emotions and sensations that she experiences (“I feel my heart beating very hard”), clearly conveying how it feels to be scared and intervene anyway.
Publishers Weekly (read full review)
. . . Maya Myers’s lively and understanding text. . . . In Hyewon Yum’s colorful and expressive illustrations, we see why Dot says she’s small but not little: She’s brimming with vigor and personality.
The Wall Street Journal (read full review)
Maya Myers 