Children’s Book “Big Little Brother” Is Wonderful

One children’s book worth reading for every family is "Big Little Brother". It is a favorite of kids all ages and certainly a good introduction for helping a sibling to welcome a brother or sister on the way.

Illustrated by Chris Monroe, a cartoonist as well as a children’s book illustrator (“Monkey With a Tool Belt”), “Big Little Brother” is the first book for children by Kevin Kling, a storyteller who provides commentaries for NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Both Monroe and Kling work in a kind of suspended ’70s landscape where small children travel without car seats and occupy themselves with green plastic Army figurines.  

The book rests on the slightly absurdist premise of a 2-year-old child growing larger than his 4-year-old brother. “Now people think he is my older brother,” the narrator says, and with plainspoken indignation he tells an inquisitive elderly woman: “I’m 4, and he’s only 2. He can’t even talk.”