Just Right for the Job! Little Big Girl by Claire Keane

Matisse was a little girl in a big world.

And Matisse knows her way around her world. She brushes her "little" teeth and puts on her own little clothes--and shoes. She fastens herself into her car seat and heads out into the big city with her mom.

With her clearly "expecting" mom right behind her, she leads the way through the giant supermarket and the big box stores where they shop, as well as the fun places they visit, like the aquarium where big sharks swim right over her head. Back home she builds a playhouse and playground with sofa cushions, and even naps happily there.

Life is good. But then one day . . .

Little Matisse met someone even littler than her.

He had little fingers

and little toes ...

Even his yawns are SO little. His shirts are super small, and so are his tiny shoes.

Suddenly Matisse sees that she is not little, not really little, compared to her baby brother. Not at all.

She is even big enough to choose the baby's little clothes and put his little shoes on his little feet and read his little books to him.

Matisse realizes that what she is is a Big Sister, in Claire Keane's Little Big Girl (Dial Books 2016). Author Keane looks mostly on the bright side of having a new baby at home, setting the stage slyly with hints of the coming event around the house for Matisse's realization of her promotion to a new family status. There are plenty of good books about the trials and tribulations of sibling-hood, but this book is just right for reading just before the new baby comes.

The granddaughter of Bil Keane, creator of the iconic Family Circus cartoons, artist Keane shares his curved lines and sense of movement as well as the ability to convey the warmth of family life in her digital drawings that make this one special. "Simple in composition but bold and expressive in its use of line and splashes of color," School Library Journal calls this one "a charming, child-focused celebration of becoming an older sibling."