Giant Steps - Hardcover

Five loud-sighin', eye-rollin', yawny-bored giants are sittin' on a mountaintop, and the game they play to beat their boredom is always the same--"giant steps." One giant (named "IT" in the one-potato game) stays on the mountain to count, as the four other giants "take off runnin'" north across the Earth ("out over snow-white slopes and bobbing icebergs"), south ("over wide wavy plains and dark tangle jungles"), east ("over jaggy-tip mountains and bottomless pools"), and west ("over red-stripe desert and yawn-mouth canyons"). When the fifth giant stops counting and yells, "FREEZE!" he throws a big golden ball at the giant who is closest to him. He consistently misses, and so has to be "IT" all over again, just like he always is. Elizabeth Loredo's mythic tall tale based on a familiar childhood game is more about the outlandish idea of truly giant steps covering the four corners of the globe and the rhythm of language than it is a plot-driven story. Barry Root's illustrations (inspired by Böcklin's painting Battle of the Centaurs) effectively capture the exaggerated tall-tale humor as well as the majesty of the Earth-traversing giants. (Ages 5 and older) --Karin Snelson

Kindergarten-Grade 4--In this entertaining read-aloud, five "loud-sighin'," "eye-rollin'," "yawny-bored giants" are sitting on a mountaintop wondering what to do. The cure for their doldrums is a game of "giant steps," in which the eternally unlucky fifth behemoth stays behind to count while the other four go pounding north, south, east, and west across the surface of the earth. When he bellows "FREEZE!" his voice reverberates across the globe, and he grabs a big, yellow ball (the sun) to lob at the closest competitor. He misses, and his four friends come running back to tease him and begin the game anew. It's just as well that the fifth giant is so ill fated because, as readers learn on the final page, he's the only one who knows how to count. Chock-full of alliterative phrases and colorful verbs that are great fun to read aloud, Loredo's folksy text has the feel of a traditional tale. Root's watercolor-and-gouache paintings complement the story's humor and liveliness. The artist dresses the characters in a hodgepodge of animal skins, plated armor, sports jerseys, and knee socks, making them look like a cross between ancient archetypes and dime-store thugs. Their goofy, wide-eyed, gap-toothed countenances will amuse youngsters, as will the comical expressions of zebras, seals, and other critters caught in the tromping giants' paths. It is easy to imagine children begging for repeated readings of this clever tale and then rushing outside to play at being giants themselves.--Eve Ortega, Cypress Library, CA
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