The Little Giant
Grade 1-4--Angelino, ostracized by his community of giants because he is too small, and Osvaldo, shunned by the other dwarfs because he is too big, both leave home. They meet, realize that they look exactly alike, and live together as friends. However, when they receive news that the giants and the dwarfs are engaged in battle, they return to their respective homes to help. When the combatants see that Angelino and Osvaldo are identical even though "one was a giant and one was a dwarf," they cease fighting because they realize "no one could tell one from the other." The mostly full-page watercolor cartoons depict round-headed, big-eared characters dressed in loincloths. They live in a land of cone-shaped, multicolored mountains in a fairly barren landscape. The battle ends abruptly, and the reason given does not make sense. Because Angelino and Osvaldo, who deviate from the characteristics of their respective clans, look alike, does it follow that those who are normally as tall as giants or as small as dwarfs could be mistaken for one another? And why, with this new reconciliation, do the two friends still feel the need to live apart instead of remaining with their communities? Douglas Wood'sOld Turtle and the Broken Truth(Scholastic, 2003) is a better treatment of a similar theme.--Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College, CTCopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.