Five giant sisters from the Granite State of New Hampshire each have a special talent: Jade can twist a river in her hands, Em whittles wood, Golda is handy with string, Ruby is as strong as a bear, and Beryl is the finest stonecutter. After Beryl carves a whole new town out of a mountain, she takes a bit of pink granite and carves a real live baby. The sisters name him Lil Fella, and he fits on the end of Beryl's finger. They all love him right away, but within a minute, it becomes clear that they have no experience with babies. "From afternoon till midnight, and midnight till dawn, Lil Fella cried, wailed, screamed, and hollered till you could actually see his yellin' in the crisp New Hampshire air." Folks across the river in Vermont call out, "Why don't you do something for that poor little baby" but the sisters don't know how to get Lil Fella to stop his infernal hollering. It takes a backwoods little girl named Nellie, herself a sister to two dozen or so siblings, to give those sisters some useful advice. "Pardon me. But I wonder if maybe that baby's cryin' because he's cold," Nellie calls. "Well," says Beryl, "I'll warm him up." She carves him a fine set of clothes out of granite, heavier than a ship's anchor, but that doesn't help a bit. The sisters listen to each of Nellie's practical suggestions, but none of their outsized solutions are what you'd call practical. It's not till Nellie shows them firsthand how to care for a baby that they understand what they should be doing.
Hawkes' larger than life, double-page, full bleed acrylic paintings are grand in the tall tale tradition. Readers and listeners will go wild over that teeny tiny baby confounding those gargantuan girls. The story is so comical in its exaggerations, but there's such a sweetness and tenderness about it, too. Meet other larger than life females in Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs, Sally Ann Thunder Ann Crockett by Steven Kellogg, and Doña Flor by Pat Mora.
TEACHING TIP: Ask your listeners to think of both tall tale-like and normal, sensible ideas to calm Lil Fella. Drawn from their own experience, they can write and illustrate a baby manual with advice on feeding, diapering, clothing, and caring for an infant.
THEMES: BABIES. EXAGGERATION. FANTASY. GIANTS. HUMOROUS FICTION. MOUNTAINS. NEW HAMPSHIRE. PICTURE BOOKS FOR ALL AGES. TALL TALES. WOMEN.
- The story is well told, the setting is clearly described, and the vocabulary has a down-home flavor that adds to its comforting tone. Hawkes's brightly colored acrylic paintings are filled with interesting details, his landscape is decidedly New England, and his characters' emotions are plainly visible in their facial expressions and trademark big eyes. This rock-solid tall tale will quickly become a favorite.
- School Library Journal