When We Were Very Young: When Stella Was Very, Very Small by Marie-Louise Gay

When Stella was very, very small, she thought she was a turtle....

When Stella was very, very small, words looked like ants running off the pages.

Every night before going to bed, Stella listened to the trees talking.

They told stories about holding up the sky with their branches and tickling the bellies of the smallest clouds..

In her latest in the Stella series, When Stella Was Very, Very Small, author/illustrator Marie-Louise Gay gives the reader a peek back in time to Stella's very first years, where small but filled with creative imagination, Stella is very much herself from the beginning. In this exquisitely illustrated little book, we see the world through the eyes of the very young, when the real and the fantastic are pleasantly intertwined. The sweetness of the small Stella's world is now to be shared with her little brother Sam.

When Stella was very, very small, she explored the great tropical jungle behind her house. There she saw a ferocious man-eating tiger and joined slithering snakes.

Now Stella is big. The ants in her books have become words, and the words have become stories.

Now Stella can read these stories to her little brother Sam.

Other rave-reviewed books starring the young Stella include Stella: Star of the Sea, Stella, Queen of the Snow, Stella, Fairy of the Forest, and Stella, Princess of the Sky, Sam, too, has his own books--Good Morning Sam (Stella), What Are You Doing, Sam?, and Good Night Sam (Stella). These sweet and simple stories are great for sharing with a younger and an older child.