Everyone fell in love with Rob Biddulph thanks to his fantastic drawing tutorials during lockdown. The fact he has a fair few cracking picture books didn’t hurt either. My favourite is Sunk! so check it out.
Gigantic is anything but his name. Small and kind hearted, he is endlessly teased by his older siblings. Titan thinks they are so much better that Gigantic due to their sheer size, yet, as the tale tells us, the only thing that matters is how big your heart is.
When Gigantic does an impressive trick, his sibling can’t help but try to do it better. This is when disaster strikes and Titan becomes grounded in the shallow water. Can Gigantic save the day?
Now for the teachers bit. Now, as teachers, we all know the mantra of having decodable phonics books at the children’s level is HUGE and this picture book illustrates why. The level of vocabulary in a story clearly aimed at Key Stage 1 is impressive. Words that children would encounter through Gigantic would include unusual, plumes, concealing, colossus, determined, rotates, assemble. This is a glimpse at how sharing picture books is an easy win for teachers for vocabulary building.
A whale of a tale with a huge heart.
The Great British Bookworm 