THE LITTLE GIANT

Ruzzier offers a bit of wishful thinking in this peace-mongering tale of an undersized giant and an oversized dwarf joining forces to defuse a war between their peoples. Ignored by his towering neighbors, lonely Angelino di Grandi leaves home. After a protracted but uneventful journey, he meets Osvaldo Curti, an ostracized dwarf who is an exact twin. When the two rush into the conflict, they’re mistaken for each other—a circumstance that prompts both sides to cease hostilities, since they can’t tell each other apart with certainty. Would that it were so simple. Dressed, like all the figures here, in loincloths but sporting single curls of hair on large, oblate heads, Angelino and Osvaldo make such a strange-looking twosome that young readers may be distracted from the story’s earnestly delivered point. Years later, the two forget who is the dwarf, and who the giant—and that casually tossed-in idea is more likely to stimulate thought and discussion than the main plot. (Picture book. 7-9)