Size is a matter of relativity in this deceptively simple, striking picture book. The opening page spread features a “Big bug” — a ladybug shown so large it doesn’t quite fit on the two pages. With a turn of the page, we see the ladybug is now small in relation to the “Big leaf” on which it sits. Every turn of the page continues to zoom farther out as the handsome paintings show the thing that was large is now small in comparison to a newly introduced object: a flower, a dog, a cow, a farm and then “Big…Big sky” (with the farm as part of the landscape). Then the comparisons reverse course, with every new object introduced “Little” in comparison to what came before, but “Big” in comparison to what comes next. Each turn of the page moves in closer and closer on details of the farm (barn, house, window, dog) in this wonderful exercise in comparison and perspective that’s terrifically executed. (Ages 3–7)

Size is relative, but everything is worth seeing in this concept book from the illustrator of And Tango Makes Three.

Beginning with a beautiful close-up of a “big” ladybug, this book artfully depicts the concept of scale. The book zooms out from the bug, to a flower, to a cow, all the way to an expansive spread of sky. Then Henry Cole masterfully zooms back in from that sky, to a tree, to a house, to a window, all the way to the end where an adorable dog is taking a “little” nap.

In this ideal introduction to the concept of scale, young readers will love the lush illustrations of the animals, objects, and scenery of a farm, and they’ll delight in seeing how something “big” can suddenly seem “little” with the turn of a page!