Even the Least.... : The Flea by Laurie Cohen and Marjorie Beal

THERE WAS ONCE A LITTLE FLEA WHO THOUGHT THAT HE WAS TOO LITTLE.

Flea is clearly size-challenged.

He can't change his shape, but he CAN hop! And when he hops on top of a pea, he feels bigger.

A little bit.

So he decides to ESCALATE his efforts. He hops up onto an apple. Better!

Higher is better, so Flea jumps to a flower, a vine, and then to the branch of a tree. From there he leaps to the pinnacle of a house roof and then onto a telephone wire.

Things are looking up for Flea, so he raises his sights to the observation deck of a skyscraper, and from there, it's a mere hop, skip, and jump to a cloud. Flea feels he's sitting on top of the world!

That is, until Bear comes along, spots the flea looking down on him, and just has to take him down a peg.

"YOU'RE HIGH UP.

I'M BIG....!"

Fighting words! Flea may be outsized by Bear, but he rises to the occasion with the one trick to remind Bear that he can make a BIG impression and be a BIG annoyance. He bites.

Bear scratches and growls and scratches some more, realizing that he's got his comeuppance.

Laurie Cohen 's latest little fable, The Flea (Owlkids Books, 2014), reminds readers that, while being high is not the same as having the most mass, small size doesn't mean you can't come out on top. Artist Beal's flea is highly stylized and thereby more appealing than most storybook fleas, and her flat, minimalist illustrations, done up in black, browns, and red, have maximum effect against this small book's bright white pages.Opening endpapers show only buff clouds, with closing endpapers feature a nice touch, flea riding high on his cloud.