The Little Guys by Vera Brosgol

Cover of The Little Guys
by Vera Brosgol 

Vera Brosgol’s The Little Guys opens upon a woodland panorama with bears, a trotting fox, and a snoozing owl, and a nod to "the strongest guys in the whole forest". But it's not who you think! We zoom in to discover that the strongest guys are, in fact, the littlest: a band of acorn-esque creatures with courage in spades. And together, they can get everything they need.

At first, we can’t help but appreciate the Little Guys’ independence: They can cross the deep water, even where they can't see the bottom; they don't fear the dark forest; they can find enough food for all of them. It's a piece of cake! But gradually the reader begins to notice what the Little Guys don’t see: Their actions are upsetting the other denizens of the forest, who are tumbled out of their homes as the Little Guys tip logs and shake branches. Before long, the Little Guys graduate from self-sufficiency to outright aggression, beating up the biggest animal they can find (a hapless bear just bringing a fish home to the cub) and taking everything for themselves. Nothing stops the Little Guys! Until, of course, something does, and suddenly the Little Guys find themselves in need of a little help from a few big friends.

image from us.macmillan.com

As a picture book, the quality of both story and illustrations is top notch. As a Geisel contender, The Little Guys isn’t perfect, but it has a lot going for it. The vocabulary is fairly simple, and the repetition of certain chunks of text—”We are the Little Guys” and “Yes, we are small. But there are a lot of us”—is certainly beneficial to a reader looking to build confidence. Some illustrations clearly add context for the text, particularly as they lift logs and climb trees. However, some parts of the text don’t have any help from the illustrations, such as “Easy peasy” and “A piece of cake for the Little Guys”. There are a few spreads where busy backgrounds may require an extra second to locate the text on the page, but for the most part, the text stands out against the background, making it easier for early readers to decipher. This is especially true as the text itself grows larger with each page turn, mirroring the Little Guys’ collective ego.

image from us.macmillan.com

The kid appeal of this one also seems high, both for content and aesthetic. The Little Guys are cute, there’s no doubt about it! And the illustrations leave plenty of space for young readers to visually decode the consequences of the Little Guys’ actions that go unremarked upon in the text. This results in a simple text with rich layers of meaning, ideal for a beginning reader. One particularly dramatic page turn results in a 90° rotation of the book, visually marking the high point for the Little Guys and making the book itself more engaging.

All in all, though The Little Guys may not be the best fit for a young reader’s first solo read, it fills a space between those who are just starting to learn to read and those who are ready for the slightly longer, chaptered beginning readers. Will it stand out as the strongest Geisel contender this year? What do you think?