Good to Be Small

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

There is panic in the barnyard. A baby sheep has gone astray.
“Where’s my la-a-amb?” cries Mama Sheep. A tiny mouse hears the
crying and offers to help. “Too small, too sma-a-a-ll,” all the
sheep bleat together, but the mouse is not put off. She climbs to the
top of the barn and spies the lost lamb far away in a distant meadow.
She scampers down the barn roof and jumps on the back of a passing fox.
“Run to the bridge,” she whispers and the fox is so surprised, it
does exactly what it is told. At the bridge, the mouse jumps off the fox
and commandeers a passing turtle. “Swim downstream,” she orders and
the surprised turtle obeys. By land, water, and air the tiny mouse works
her way to the lost lamb. Hours later she returns in triumph to the
barnyard riding on the head of the lamb.

This is another fine barnyard tale by award-winning author/illustrator
Sean Cassidy. In 2000, Cassidy collected both the Mr. Christie’s and
the Ruth Schwartz Children’s Book awards for his illustrations in The
Chicken Cat. In this book, Cassidy proves he is no slouch in the writing
department either. The storyline is spiked with humor and imagination,
and is cute without being cloying—the same elements that make
Cassidy’s semi-realistic acrylic illustrations so superb. The result
is a picture book that will certainly reap praise from the playpen set
and likely put Cassidy in the running for more awards. Highly
recommended.