Confidence

[Kallen]

The book The Little Little Girl with the Big Big Voice is about a little girl who struggles to find someone who is willing to play with her. Although the reader is never told why she struggles to make friends, the illustrations do a little bit more of the show. This book represents the central theme of confidence because although the main character struggles to find someone to play with her, she remains true to her own self and doesn’t change in order to please others. Once the character finds the lion, someone who is as loud as her, they happily play all day. The reader is left with a feeling of joy and perhaps have hope in friendships. I think this book illustrates what confidence can look like and highlight the idea of being confident enough to own it. A reading that resonated was, “Introduction to picture book codes”, specifically when it mentions semic slippage where image and word can send conflicting or contradictory meanings (Moebius, 252). As mentioned above, in words the reader is never told that the main character was having trouble creating friends because of her big voice, but the illustrations show otherwise. The words and illustrations help the reader predict and understand what is going on in the book.