Little Man (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781931414494)

A light-hearted tale of a boy who gains self-confidence with the help of some timely mentoring.

Albert is short -- very short -- and he hates it. His older brothers are tall like his father, but he takes after his petite mother. He wears too-large hand-me-down clothes from his bigger brothers. And worst of all, his very best friend moved away to Brooklyn during the school break. It was all so unfair.

Albert is beginning Middle School on Little Scrub, the small Caribbean Island where he lives. As he steps on the bus, and sees the older kids, he feels smaller than ever. They take one look at him and howl with laughter, chanting "Little Man, Little Man, you so small, didn't hardly see you at all."

Things go downhill from there, and would've stayed down if it wasn't for an encounter with Peachy, the leader of a troupe of stiltwalkers. The stiltwalkers do a lot more than walk: they dance and leap across the sand on spindly eight-foot high wooden stilts, their brilliantly colored costumes shimmering in the moonlight.

Peachy invites Albert to join the high school students he teaches to stiltwalk. It's not an easy decision for Albert. Would they laugh at him even harder than the Middle School kids? And he is queasy about heights. The thought of wobbling around on those skinny wooden sticks makes him woozy with fear.

But Albert is won over by the thought that one day he might actually be up there, tall as a palm tree, dancing around without fear or hesitation. Besides, desperate times call for desperate measures and nobody was more desperate than Albert.

Slowly, as his stiltwalking improves, Albert finds his self-confidence grows. He becomes less of a target for teasing at school and he makes some new friends.

Author: Elizabeth Mann
ISBN-10: 1931414491
ISBN-13: 9781931414494
Publisher: Mikaya Press
Language: English
Published: 05/16/2014
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.60w x 0.80d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.9
Point Value: 7
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 174043 / Little Man


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2014 pg. 64
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2014
School Library Journal 10/01/2014 pg. 106
Kirkus Best Middle Grade Books 11/15/2014 pg. 90