“Please Mum, can I ….? I’m big enough.”  Every child and every parent has to face this some time, and it is a very big thing for the little independent one.  When can they succeed, or even fail, on their own terms?

In “I’m Big Enough”, Sally Odgers has Joey the Wallaby asking his mum if he can hop along by himself to Wallaby Grove.  Mum is quite happy to let him try and off he hops through the big wide world.

Mum isn’t the problem – it is all the well-meaning friends who think he has to be helped and who measure Joey by their own standards.  When he can’t dig out a worm for Platypus, or hang by his tail for Possum, or fly for Kookaburra, they all have to come along too. 

And so, his hops get smaller and his proud personal effort is flattened.  He bounces up at the end, getting to Wallaby Grove and wondering what all the fuss was about, but the lesson that the adults have to learn is painfully obvious.

“I’m Big Enough” is not a preachy book.  It is as light and bouncy as Joey, delightfully supported by Lloyd Foye’s bold, colourful drawings. 

But adults reading it be warned!  It really makes you ask yourself “How much do I squash someone who just wants to bounce?!!”

Review by David Beagley

© 2002 David Beagley