CAN YOU SEE ME?

A journey into the world of big and little and a nudge to think outside the box.

This whimsical, quirky, and engaging picture book, a Spanish import by a Turkish creator, takes readers on an Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland–type exploration of perceptive relativity. What is little to one may be big to another; if readers were as strong as ants, they could lift rhinos; if they could jump as high as fleas, they could reach the top of the Eiffel Tower—these are just some of the thought-provoking ideas presented. The narrative (appealingly hand-lettered) is accompanied by collaged illustrations that are just as whimsical and that cleverly build as the story unfolds. “If your foot could grow as fast as a caterpillar can during its life cycle… / …your foot would be 3 times larger after just a few days. / It would keep growing until…it would not fit in a school bus. Like this elephant.” Huh? Readers may ask. But the introduction of the pachyderm leads to the idea of an elephant’s big footprint—which, if it filled with water, could be habitat for 60 different species. While the story unfolds in what appears to be a rather dizzying array of free-form thoughts, it holds itself together—just—although readers will want to go through it more than once to grasp all the clever connections. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A thought-provoking way of looking at the world, and imaginative kids will love it.