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Welcome to the Small World: A Book of Big Surprises!
Milkmaid Margaret has spent her entire life working as a farmhand. Wearing her working dress and apron, she makes her way through the barn with her silver milk bucket and tries to milk anything -- giant cows, pigs and maybe even a fish or two. Von Pelt is a hunter from Australia. Dressed in his pith helmet and knickers, he stalks the forest for prey, unaware that he is about to become dinner for a ginormous snake. Bob the Balloon Man works under the beautiful multicolored lights of the giant Ferris wheel trying to sell balloons the size of poppy seeds. Such is a day in the life of "Welcome to the Small World: A Book of Big Surprises!"
All of these heroes, and many more, share two things in common: They get along in our world oblivious to the challenges around them -- and they all measure in at 3/4" tall, the size of a dime. Kelly McManus partners with fine art photographer Kurt Moses (Un Petit Monde) for this debut children's book...
All of these heroes, and many more, share two things in common: They get along in our world oblivious to the challenges around them -- and they all measure in at 3/4" tall, the size of a dime. Kelly McManus partners with fine art photographer Kurt Moses (Un Petit Monde) for this debut children's book...
40 pages, Hardcover
First published February 14, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 12, 2014
Book Description:
“Milkmaid Margaret has spent her entire life working as a farmhand. Wearing her working dress and apron, she makes her way through the barn with her silver milk bucket and tries to milk anything -- giant cows, pigs and maybe even a fish or two. Von Pelt is a hunter from Australia. Dressed in his pith helmet and knickers, he stalks the forest for prey, unaware that he is about to become dinner for a ginormous snake. Bob the Balloon Man works under the beautiful multicolored lights of the giant Ferris wheel trying to sell balloons the size of poppy seeds. Such is a day in the life of "Welcome to the Small World: A Book of Big Surprises!"
All of these heroes, and many more, share two things in common: They get along in our world oblivious to the challenges around them--and they all measure in at 3/4'' tall, the size of a dime. Kelly McManus partners with fine art photographer Kurt Moses (Un Petit Monde) for this debut children's book project. With a quirky narrative and over 40 stunning images, Kelly and Kurt capture their love of all things magical by igniting your imagination as you enter this new Small World.”
This book was shared with a classroom of 2nd graders. I showed the cover of the book first and asked them what they thought the book was going to be about. I then proceeded to read the first two pages before the story began while showing them the photography that went with.
“Magic is all around us- we simply have to keep our eyes open and explore. Welcome to the Small World. These are the littlest folks you would ever hope to meet- in fact, this is how big they are in real life! But even though these folds are tiny, they have BIG adventures in the Small World.”
Just by those first two pages, I think they realized this wasn’t going to be a typical, traditional book shared for guest reading. Separated into different categories of : in the city, at the fair, in the forest, in the garden, on the farm and at the seashore, all depicting creative photography and imaginative adventures.
The students seem to enjoy the every day and sometimes familiar situations that the heroes were in. Prompted children to think how some items seem so large to them, must be “ginormous” to the heroes!
While they listened attentively to each page of text, they definitely seemed to enjoy the smaller random text at the bottom corners of the pages from the heroes more.
“Milkmaid Margaret has spent her entire life working as a farmhand. Wearing her working dress and apron, she makes her way through the barn with her silver milk bucket and tries to milk anything -- giant cows, pigs and maybe even a fish or two. Von Pelt is a hunter from Australia. Dressed in his pith helmet and knickers, he stalks the forest for prey, unaware that he is about to become dinner for a ginormous snake. Bob the Balloon Man works under the beautiful multicolored lights of the giant Ferris wheel trying to sell balloons the size of poppy seeds. Such is a day in the life of "Welcome to the Small World: A Book of Big Surprises!"
All of these heroes, and many more, share two things in common: They get along in our world oblivious to the challenges around them--and they all measure in at 3/4'' tall, the size of a dime. Kelly McManus partners with fine art photographer Kurt Moses (Un Petit Monde) for this debut children's book project. With a quirky narrative and over 40 stunning images, Kelly and Kurt capture their love of all things magical by igniting your imagination as you enter this new Small World.”
This book was shared with a classroom of 2nd graders. I showed the cover of the book first and asked them what they thought the book was going to be about. I then proceeded to read the first two pages before the story began while showing them the photography that went with.
“Magic is all around us- we simply have to keep our eyes open and explore. Welcome to the Small World. These are the littlest folks you would ever hope to meet- in fact, this is how big they are in real life! But even though these folds are tiny, they have BIG adventures in the Small World.”
Just by those first two pages, I think they realized this wasn’t going to be a typical, traditional book shared for guest reading. Separated into different categories of : in the city, at the fair, in the forest, in the garden, on the farm and at the seashore, all depicting creative photography and imaginative adventures.
The students seem to enjoy the every day and sometimes familiar situations that the heroes were in. Prompted children to think how some items seem so large to them, must be “ginormous” to the heroes!
While they listened attentively to each page of text, they definitely seemed to enjoy the smaller random text at the bottom corners of the pages from the heroes more.
February 17, 2014
This book is original I must say, and there are some aspects I adore...
When my seven year old son saw the cover, he burst out laughing at the cover picture, which is always a promising sign in regards to a new book.
Some of the pictures he howled or pondered over. Some, he was just confused by. How could a tiny man hit a huge tennis ball, or wee milkmaid milk a cow? The other pictures enchanted him - the tiny hunter on the prowl for the huge snake, the ambulance crew trying to save a cicada, the lumberjack trying to chop down the apple stem. These pictures seem to me to make sense in an imaginative sort of way, because they could sort of happen if you were tiny. But a mini milkmaid couldn't milk a cow - to far-fetched for my imagination. The concept is interesting and fanciful, and I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the book, though a very few of the pictures fell short in that aspect.
The unusual perspective the book conveys is creative and playful. It would be an excellent choice for an art, photography or creative writing class in school.
The pictures are constructed tableaux that are grouped together in a few themes to include ‘on the farm,’ ‘in the garden,’ ‘at the seashore,’ etc. There is no typical story here.
Rather large text to go with the pictures- great for kids in grade school. As there is no story, the wording is mainly comments about the pictures on the opposite page - nothing particularly significant, but sometime humorous. A miniature is in each word page corner, with comments – sometimes silly, sometimes corresponding with the picture and text, and sometimes has no relevance at all with what is going on. I enjoyed the comments when it added to the theme, esp. if they were funny, but when it was not relevant, it was perplexing.
My son rates the book as a four and I a three, so the overall rating would be 3.5 stars. Overall, I thought this an innovative and quirky book that provides kids a whimsical outlook to this world.
Disclosure: I read a free copy of the book in return for my candid review. Be assured, my opinion is honest, and I do not owe or know the author/publisher.
When my seven year old son saw the cover, he burst out laughing at the cover picture, which is always a promising sign in regards to a new book.
Some of the pictures he howled or pondered over. Some, he was just confused by. How could a tiny man hit a huge tennis ball, or wee milkmaid milk a cow? The other pictures enchanted him - the tiny hunter on the prowl for the huge snake, the ambulance crew trying to save a cicada, the lumberjack trying to chop down the apple stem. These pictures seem to me to make sense in an imaginative sort of way, because they could sort of happen if you were tiny. But a mini milkmaid couldn't milk a cow - to far-fetched for my imagination. The concept is interesting and fanciful, and I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the book, though a very few of the pictures fell short in that aspect.
The unusual perspective the book conveys is creative and playful. It would be an excellent choice for an art, photography or creative writing class in school.
The pictures are constructed tableaux that are grouped together in a few themes to include ‘on the farm,’ ‘in the garden,’ ‘at the seashore,’ etc. There is no typical story here.
Rather large text to go with the pictures- great for kids in grade school. As there is no story, the wording is mainly comments about the pictures on the opposite page - nothing particularly significant, but sometime humorous. A miniature is in each word page corner, with comments – sometimes silly, sometimes corresponding with the picture and text, and sometimes has no relevance at all with what is going on. I enjoyed the comments when it added to the theme, esp. if they were funny, but when it was not relevant, it was perplexing.
My son rates the book as a four and I a three, so the overall rating would be 3.5 stars. Overall, I thought this an innovative and quirky book that provides kids a whimsical outlook to this world.
Disclosure: I read a free copy of the book in return for my candid review. Be assured, my opinion is honest, and I do not owe or know the author/publisher.
February 25, 2014
I met Kelly McManus through our mutual publisher, Wise Ink, and since we both have books launching soon (SOON! Like, crazy soon!) we decided to do a “book review swap”. When I first heard about Welcome to the Small World, I had no idea what to expect. Picture books aren’t exactly my thing anymore. But when I got my copy of the book, it was clear to me why their Kickstarter campaign was so ridiculously successful. This book is just pure joy.
The premise is simple: Little “people” in a much larger world. The pictures, by Kurt Moses, are totally captivating. A tiny figurine on a flower next to a bumble bee. Tiny farmer toys putting “huge” corn kernals into an itty bitty wheelbarrow. The imagery is whimsical, the captions hilarious. This is the type of book that gets people of all ages talking. And more importantly– smiling.
Could you “teach” this book? No, probably not. But what I couldn’t stop thinking about what using this type of book in an art class, to show students how art can be used to show a broader vision of life. How, when size and scale are distorted, things can look scary or silly or suddenly in a more clear perspective. How a photographer does so much more than point and click– they see a version of the world, and make it real.
I’ll also add that my three year old LOVED the book (except the spider on the cover– “too scary!” :). We’re headed to the book launch party this Thursday and are excited to meet Kelly and Kurt in person!
The premise is simple: Little “people” in a much larger world. The pictures, by Kurt Moses, are totally captivating. A tiny figurine on a flower next to a bumble bee. Tiny farmer toys putting “huge” corn kernals into an itty bitty wheelbarrow. The imagery is whimsical, the captions hilarious. This is the type of book that gets people of all ages talking. And more importantly– smiling.
Could you “teach” this book? No, probably not. But what I couldn’t stop thinking about what using this type of book in an art class, to show students how art can be used to show a broader vision of life. How, when size and scale are distorted, things can look scary or silly or suddenly in a more clear perspective. How a photographer does so much more than point and click– they see a version of the world, and make it real.
I’ll also add that my three year old LOVED the book (except the spider on the cover– “too scary!” :). We’re headed to the book launch party this Thursday and are excited to meet Kelly and Kurt in person!
February 17, 2014
I received a copy of this for review through Goodreads' First Reads program.
Overall, this was quite a charming book. The photography was lovely and creative, and sometimes I was mostly just amazed at how they captured that specific shot. (Though if you don't like bug closeups, beware that there's one on the cover and one inside!)
The writing was alright, for its own part. A few passages made me smile or laugh, but some were just banal. The second set of text on each page (the smaller font at the bottom) was often more entertaining or amusing than anything the main text had to say. They were good responses to the main passages, however, in most cases, so it works out alright.
Formatting-wise, the book does suffer a bit. It's more a nitpick than anything else, but the photos and text were not balanced. While they were consistent, it felt a bit messy to have the photography spill onto the next page over, when there was plenty of room for it and it was never anything necessary that would have been cut off. Still, this is a minor complaint!
Like I said, this book is pretty cute. I'll be passing it along to my youngest step-brothers.
Overall, this was quite a charming book. The photography was lovely and creative, and sometimes I was mostly just amazed at how they captured that specific shot. (Though if you don't like bug closeups, beware that there's one on the cover and one inside!)
The writing was alright, for its own part. A few passages made me smile or laugh, but some were just banal. The second set of text on each page (the smaller font at the bottom) was often more entertaining or amusing than anything the main text had to say. They were good responses to the main passages, however, in most cases, so it works out alright.
Formatting-wise, the book does suffer a bit. It's more a nitpick than anything else, but the photos and text were not balanced. While they were consistent, it felt a bit messy to have the photography spill onto the next page over, when there was plenty of room for it and it was never anything necessary that would have been cut off. Still, this is a minor complaint!
Like I said, this book is pretty cute. I'll be passing it along to my youngest step-brothers.
March 10, 2014
"Welcome to the Small World a book of big Surprises" which I won from Goodreads Giveaways is an imaginative exploration of the natural of places we all take for granted, like a bus stop and a fair. In this book children discover the wonders of a garden, the excitement of visiting animals on a farm and even the strange creatures that inhabit the seashore and the forest.
This wonderfully understandable story is an exploration of the senses; a picture book filled with colourful photographs and tiny people that bring it to life. I thoroughly enjoyed the humour of the miniatures as well as how they emphasize the bigness of simple things, making each discovery a big adventure.
My enjoyment of this entertaining story I intend to share with the 2-6 year olds in my life and give credit to both the writer and photographer for a beautifully crafted book.
This wonderfully understandable story is an exploration of the senses; a picture book filled with colourful photographs and tiny people that bring it to life. I thoroughly enjoyed the humour of the miniatures as well as how they emphasize the bigness of simple things, making each discovery a big adventure.
My enjoyment of this entertaining story I intend to share with the 2-6 year olds in my life and give credit to both the writer and photographer for a beautifully crafted book.
February 15, 2014
I got this book from a Goodreads giveaway contest. My 6 year old Daughter and I read it last night and so we will both provide our thoughts.
My review: Loved the pictures, Each page was just enough of a story about the pictures, it kept my daughters interest. Some pages asked questions which is great, gets them involved in the story, but I thought it should have been on every page. The pages that didn't have the questions we didn't stay on the page as long to discuss. Overall great book for kids.
6 yr old Review: I really like the pictures, I want to make my own pictures to go in the book. How come the picture on the front and back don't have a story? The big words were not funny but the little words were funny. I liked it and want to see more pictures.
My review: Loved the pictures, Each page was just enough of a story about the pictures, it kept my daughters interest. Some pages asked questions which is great, gets them involved in the story, but I thought it should have been on every page. The pages that didn't have the questions we didn't stay on the page as long to discuss. Overall great book for kids.
6 yr old Review: I really like the pictures, I want to make my own pictures to go in the book. How come the picture on the front and back don't have a story? The big words were not funny but the little words were funny. I liked it and want to see more pictures.
February 7, 2014
I won a copy of Welcome to the Small World in the Goodreads contest for a free review copy. After reading the book, I will say that it is very interesting and entertaining. This is a book that I would read to a child, I will definitely keep this book in a safe place for my children to enjoy. It has a very nice cover and the photos are great.
March 16, 2014
I was an original backer to this book for the specific reason of that I love the idea of small people/creatures in the regular world. This is such a great book for young readers or anybody that can appreciate great photography. Each picture is high quality and has a fun story attached to it. I will definitely be reading this one to my girlfriend's nieces and nephews.
February 15, 2014
I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways. I really liked the idea behind it but something in the art made my head spin, like I couldn't focus on it properly. I will be passing it on and hope it ends up with someone who appreciates it more.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews