Big Thinker, Big Story

Guest Reviewer Lynn McSheehy is a graphic designer and single mother from Ohio. When she is not helping her parents run the family business, she spends her free time playing with her two spectacularly cute little boys. Her interests include music, art and theology, and she hopes to some day write a children’s book or two of her own! We’ll certainly look forward to that, Lynn.

When I first saw the title of this book, Little Ant, Big Thinker:
Or Where Does The Ocean End?  it made me smile because it reminded me of my 3 1/2 year-old son, Jack! He is a busy little guy who asks all sorts of questions! As soon as Jack saw the book, he wanted to hold it and read it right away. As we sat reading it together, he studied the pictures intently and made comments about all of the little details hidden in the illustrations. The illustrations seemed like something that Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle might come up with after spending a cloudy day on a beach. Jack and I both liked the page that was set “portrait style” so that you had to turn the book on its side to see the ant and the elephant stacked up on top of the palm tree to see farther out to find the end of the ocean!

 
My preschooler, Jack, wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the book. His 17 month old little brother, Luke, squealed and pointed to the pictures of the ant, elephant and fish, and sat contentedly through the entire story.  After we were done reading it, I put the book away and started in on some housework. As I was working, I looked up to see Jack leafing through Little Ant, Big Thinker on his own! I asked if he wanted me to read it to him again, but he said, “No, mommy…I just want to look at it by myself!”  Hooray for independence!  Overall, it was a fun book to read, with interesting illustrations. I am thinking the philosophy of it all went a bit over Jack’s head, but that didn’t keep him from enjoying it, thoroughly!