Giant

Eleven year old Anzo has a problem; he is short, very short, which makes it difficult to be noticed in an extraordinary, noisy family who are all unusually tall. At school he is teased and even the teacher thinks it is a good idea to cast Anzo as all of the seven dwarves in the school play. If only he could just grow a bit taller Anzo feels that all his problems would be solved. His family would start to pay attention to him and he could tell them that he loves to draw cartoons and that he has won a prize to attend a comic book convention. With the help of his best friend Elise, a 'wanna be' therapist, and her 'power of positive thought' he finds he can and does grow taller, but it isn't the instant solution he was hoping for. In fact, it just swops one set of problems for another. He is still teased at school, now for being too tall, and his family are still too busy to really notice him. He still does not know where he fits in but with persuasion from Elise, Anzo gets up the courage to follow his dream to attend the convention and begins to find his place in the world. This is a wonderful, warm and funny story about growing up and learning to believe in yourself. The characters are well drawn, particularly super-organised Elise with her post-it notes and wonderful words of wisdom. Anzo's narration is engaging and he is funny and likeable. It would appeal to readers who enjoyed Kate Dicamillo's Flora and Ulysses or A F Harrold's Fizzlebert Stump series. 192 pages / Ages 8+ / Reviewed by Caroline Gosden, school librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 7+