Award-winning Children's Book 'BIG' Reflects the Sophistication of Children's Literature

    In the constantly evolving landscape of children’s literature, the 2024 Caldecott Medal winner, Big by Vashti Harrison stands out in its creativity and sophistication. 

Big by Vashti Harrison (2023)

    The book becomes an icon for anti-fat bias as it depicts fatphobia and how it affects children. In the book, we can see a girl slowly and saddeningly feel negative about her body after receiving insults from her peers and nagging from adults around her. Her initial acceptance and joy for her body change into the feeling of being “not herself, out of place, exposed, judged, yet invisible.” Nearing the end of the book, we can see her growing bigger and ending up filling the whole place, portraying her feeling of being stuck and trapped. 

    Eventually, she lets it all out and cries out her feelings and she begins to see things more clearly. She sees all the words people have said to her and separates the good from the bad. She holds onto the good words and returns the bad ones. In the end, when someone offered to help her change, she politely declined the offer because “she was just a girl and she was good.”

    The beautiful storyline and illustrations in the book are more than enough reasons why this book deserves its awards. It tackles a complex and sophisticated topic while keeping it light and easily digestible for children. The sophistication of themes and topics in children’s books has been a debate in the realm of children's literature. Many argue about the necessity and urgency of it while some doubt it. 

In Rousseau’s seminal book, Emile, we see children as a special version of humans. Children are free from adult bias and prejudice, living life with innocence and purity in their eyes. This special and innocent perception should be protected, therefore leading to the creation of a special world of literature that’s specially reserved for children. This is why a lot of children’s literature works revolve around fantasy. A world filled with smiles and laughter with no complicated and heavy problems begging them to be solved. This era of children’s literature is seen as the Golden Era. However, as time goes on, we can see more and more of children’s literature sophistication. The subject matters are no longer light and simple but now contain heavy and complicated life problems and social issues.

    The shift of themes brought by children’s literature is seen from the ideas and concepts of homosexuality, sexual relationships, drug abuse, alcoholic behavior, and many others. Big is one of the children’s books that became a part of this shift. While the change is supported by the argument that these issues also affect children, it also raises a question. The problems and conflicts that the characters go through in the story can be used as an example to show children how to handle life’s obstacles. If the conflicts that are mentioned in the story are as heavy and complicated as mentioned above, how does this affect them morally?

    The stories that children read often would stimulate them to reenact them and it’s important to note that children’s thinking is influenced by the activities they’re engaged in or participate in. If this continues to happen, children’s literature might no longer be able to protect children’s special perception and view of the world. But do children need to be fully kept away from these themes? It’s important to note that these heavy and complicated themes are the true depiction of the real world and children need to be aware of that. Children might also have rational and realistic fears and children’s literature can also help them to figure them out. Stories with a more believable plot can help children relate to them and later resolve their real-life fear or concerns. 

    However, just like everything in life, children’s literature need balance. We need to understand that even though children might jump in excitement when you tell them a scary story, they also want to be assured that everything is okay and they’re safe. Children’s literature should be able to give children a sense of security and protection, to be their safe place.