Review by Booklist Review
A high-spirited little girl wears a hard hat and stacks up blocks while her dog and cat look on. Outdoors, she supervises them in constructing a doghouse, a little cabin, an enormous house, a road, a bridge, an office building, and a row of skyscrapers, while the brief text goes from Big to Bigger! to Bigger! Bigger! to Biggest! Suddenly, the ground shakes (Boom! Boom!). An enormous toddler wrecks the buildings (Crash!). Wrenched back from her imaginary world, the girl deflates, then gazes unhappily at the sibling, whose delighted expression wilts into sadness. She recovers, smiles, offers her hard hat, and they start building together. There's a lot to admire here, from the vivid re-creation of the child's imaginative play to her self-possession in taking on her new role: big sister. The pithy text builds in intensity until the crash, followed by two wordless spreads and the final one: Stronger! Stronger! Bold, black lines define the images in the sturdy, expressive acrylic paintings. A worthy sequel to Higher! Higher! (2009) and Faster! Faster! (2012).--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Toddler-PreS-This deceptively simple story stars a little pigtailed girl in a hard hat building progressively larger buildings, initially from blocks. But after the first page, the illustrations enter her imagination, as she builds a dog house ("Big!"), a house ("Bigger!"), skyscrapers ("Bigger! Bigger!") and ultimately a whole city ("Biggest!"), which is then knocked down by an enormous, bald baby in a diaper ("Boom! Boom! Crash!"). Her fantasy crashes down with the buildings and she is left with a pile of blocks and downcast expression, until the baby holds out a block in offering and the book ends with them building cooperatively ("Stronger! Stronger!") The story is told almost entirely with illustrations, and just single words of text. Patricelli's trademark round-faced, oval eyed tots are in full evidence here, with lots of primary colors and textured pastel-style art. She emphasizes the increase in size of the buildings both by switching points of view and increasing the size of the font. The story is quite simple, but youngsters will need to make the leap to fantasy. The idea of building is always popular, and the concepts of forgiveness and cooperation are imbedded seamlessly into the story. VERDICT Patricelli fans, teachers looking to explain concepts of size and behavior, as well as libraries looking for simple books that leave lots of room for interpretation will find a lot to enjoy here. A worthwhile addition.-Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In her previous picture books (Higher! Higher!, rev. 3/09; Faster! Faster!, rev. 3/12), this pigtailed adventurer has taken readers on wild and imaginative ridesswinging high into space; moving as fast as a cheetah. Here the girl begins by building a tower out of bricks, then progresses to a doghouse, then a real house, a housing complex, a bridge, an office building, and a skyscraper. Build. / Big. / Bigger! / Bigger! Bigger! The girls dog and cat pitch in, wearing hard hats, while handheld tools such as hammers and nails soon make way for construction vehicles. The shifting perspectives of the scenes as the buildings get bigger create excitement with every page-turn. A double-page spread declaring, finally, Biggest! shows a city skyline with the self-satisfied trio of girl, cat, and dog in the forefrontbut the next page shows an alarming, vibrating scene: Boom! Boom! Crashing through the skyscrapers, a huge diapered infant (whom readers may recognize from Patricellis popular board books) upsets every structureand the fantasyuntil only a pile of blocks and the babys tearful older sister remain. Wordless spreads show the process of reconciliation as the two start building together as a team: Stronger! Stronger! The minimal text, bright color palette, and textured acrylic paintings with thick black outlines create a book appropriate for sharing both one-on-one and with groups. julie roach (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Building-block play is fodder for a little girl's imagination.The exuberant, pigtailed girl from previous Patricelli titles (Faster! Faster!, 2012, etc.) returns, and here her pretend play centers on building blocks. The frontmatter pages show her dumping out multicolored blocks while wearing a construction hat. She starts to build, and the spare setting suggests the inside of a home. This changes with the page turn as the blue wall behind her morphs into an open blue sky, and her pets from the prior page become slightly anthropomorphized. The illustrations thus move readers into the realm of fantasy as the girl's block creations are now presented as full-scale buildings: first a doghouse, then a house, and "Bigger! Bigger!" until a climactic spread depicts the girl and her pets rejoicing in front of the "Biggest!" city skyline. Then, "BOOM! BOOM!" They hear something, and a page turn reveals a larger-than-life, diapered baby stomping through the city like Godzilla. Readers may see that the baby bears a striking resemblance to the tot featured in Patricelli's board book series, and they will doubtlessly realize that here the baby is the girl's little sibling, wreaking havoc on her block play. The story shifts back to reality as baby tries to make amends and the big sister generously welcomes collaborative play. Both girl and baby present white.Hooray! Hooray! Again! Again! (Picture book. 2-4)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
