Big Talk

by Miriam Schlein, Joan Auclair (Illustrator)

Mother Kangaroo expresses her confidence in her youngster's ability to achieve great things.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Library Binding

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Miriam Schlein was an American author who wrote nearly 100 books that helped teach children about animals and more obscure ideas such as space and time. Her books include The Year of the Panda and Discovering Dinosaur Babies. Schlein died of vasculitis in Manhattan, New York, at age 78, in 2004.

Reviews

[Brittney · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Big Talk” is a story about a mamma kangaroo and her joey. In the story the mother kangaroo can do anything and everything possible. Exaggeration is very obvious throughout this story. Although there is a lot of exaggeration the mother kangaroo tells her joey that she believes one day he will grow up and be able to do anything he wants to. This would be a great book to read to a student to show exaggerations and having someone believe in you.

[Becca Dunlap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mother Kangaroo encourages her child's over-confidence to find that he really doesn't have the abilities he claims, but she knows in her heart he will one day. It's a great story for children to understand that a little confidence can be a good thing.

[Stephanie Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes a joey and mother kangaroo. The joey describes all of these big, amazing things he can do and the mother tells him she believe someday he will. I would use this book to teach kids about exaggerations and having someone believe in you.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Auclair does a neat thing where she uses two styles of art--one to illustrate the conversation between the mom and the baby and the other where she's illustrating what they're talking about.