Little Pea, a super-cute read-aloud book that rises to the challenge

Little Pea is one of those books. It’s a book that’s meant to be read aloud to toddlers through first-grade students. The text is simple. The illustrations are cute, very detailed in a cartoon fashion, and relentlessly happy. With great read-aloud books, the magic happens when you read it and combine everything together. That’s what happens when you read Little Pea to children.

Little Pea was born very small. He had to borrow shoes from dolls for his feet, learned to swim in the sink, used LEGO blocks for his mountain climbing practice, and a grasshopper for his horse. It’s obvious that Pea is a very small person, but that doesn’t impact his attitude when he’s at home.

When Little Pea was old enough to attend school he found out that he really was small. He needed to sit on books in order to see over his desk. The recorder was 10 times larger than he and the balls in gym class could easily squash him. To cheer himself up Pea started to draw pictures. As Pea got even older and moved into a home of his own, he continued to draw pictures as a professional.

See, I told you that the story in Little Pea was simple. Again, the magic in reading books to those younger ages is in the enthusiasm that you present it, as well as, the details or simplicity in the story. Little Pea has detailed art that lends itself to pointing out aspects that younger audiences might not see. Some of them will notice the fact that the table is a bottle cap. They’ll all see that a ladybug is taking the place of his dog. They might miss the fact that the massive tree near his house is actually a tomato plant.

When you read the story slowly, you’re able to point out those details. However, the person reading to those read-aloud audiences doesn’t always have the time to point things out. Sometimes you just have to occupy their attention for five minutes. Little Pea has some pages with white space that allows you, or the readers not to dwell on them, if they don’t want to. The illustrations on those pages can occupy time, if you need them to.

Little Pea is what some teachers call a short bridge book. I need something that can last between two and seven minutes, and I need it now. You need it now because if you don’t then the hoard of four-year-olds will realize that they can seize control of the narrative and make your day go sideways This is a very cute book that does that in a charming way that’ll leave those young audiences with a grin on their face. If there’s more time then the book’s details are such that, curious kids will cozy up to its illustrations and learn to love reading.

Little Pea is by Davide Cali with illustrations by Sebastien Mourrain and is available on Milky Way Picture Books.

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