Pathways to Acceptance

Big by Vashti Harrison
Little, Brown, May 1, 2023

Carrying its outstanding list of praise and recognition – the Caldecott Medal 2024; the Coretta Scott King Honor Title 2024; National Book Award Finalist 2024 – this picture book is making space on the awards shelves for a beautiful child. When she was very young, she was praised for being a "big girl." But soon something changed. Hostile words from others landed with a deep and lasting impact. Why are you so big? Can't you just fit in? There's no room for you! Aren't you too big for that? Bringing the reader straight into the heart of fat-bias, its relationship to "early adultification," and the experience of body, racial, or age judgement, this book has messages from the early through upper years. When this lively, loveable child makes an immensely brave decision to take up her space proudly, many older readers will not only cheer her on but scour their own mindsets with new understanding of what it feels like to be big in a world of narrow pathways to acceptance. This child shows us what self-love can look like. So, as author Harrison writes in the candid afterword, she painted the child dressed in pink tones because it was a color to avoid when, as a child herself, she believed it made her size more noticeable. "Noticeable" is one word for this remarkable book. Here are a few more: necessary, empowering, unforgettable, inclusive, and yes, big.