The Long and Short of It: Me Tall, You Small by Lilli L'Arronge

YOU SHOUT

ME SHUSH

Lilli L'Arronge's delightful little treatise on parent-and-child doings, Me Tall, You Small (Owlkids Books, 2017) plays with the contrast between adult and child in daily life. One is tall and the other is not, but one has a bit more energy than the other, especially on a camping trip where Tall carries Small (and their gear) up a considerable mountain.

ME TIRED

YOU WIRED

Tall gets soaked while Small rides in cozy comfort in his little bike trailer. Small refuses to take NO! for answer where a can of cookies is at stake, and when Tall tries sneakily to put the cookies too high for Small, the smarter little one takes over, stacking a cart, table, and trash can up so that he can be reach as high as tall, too.

Terrifically translated from the French by Madeleine Stratford, author-illustrator L'Arronge depicts two charming, cozy, cuddly, but non-specific animals as stand-ins for human parents and children, in a sweet and funny treatise, playing with comparisons, that show the many ways parent and child share the joy of being together, eating ice cream, snuggling in bed, bandaging boo-boos, and sharing splashing in puddles, chomping sausages, and just sheer silliness in quiet times and joyfully rowdy times.

YOU WHOOP

I DROOP

"Being winsome without being wince-inducing is no easy task, and this playful, tender book may inspire real-life parent-child pairs to come up with some me-vs.-you comparisons of their own," says Booklist.