Book Review: Andre is the Best Big Brother

Summary:

            André is the Best Big Brother is a story dealing with the transition of family growth. The book begins when André wakes up the morning his new baby sibling is coming home. At first he is excited, but when André begins to struggle with this new change, his parents must guide him through his confusing emotions. When his mother offers to let him hold the new baby, things change once again for André and he is able to find new ways in which they can interact as a family. In André is the Best Big Brother young readers will see André cope with the various emotions children often experience when a new sibling comes home. André can help guide children through the confusing emotions of jealousy and insecurity to the truth that when a family grows, so does love.

Review: 

As a librarian and a lover of children’s literature there are several things I look for when I pick up a children’s book. I am a firm believer that you shouldn’t talk down to children. I know that a child does feel the same obligation an adult does to finish a boring book. I expect authors and illustrators to respect that children are complex beings. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I think children’s books should be reviewed in a serious manner. My rating will be based on the illustrations, the text, and the cohesive whole. Now let me jump into my review of André is the Best Big Brother, written by Mikaela Wilson and illustrated by Pardeep Merha.

Illustrations: When I opened up the book, I was immediately excited by the illustration of André jumping on his bed. The details put into André (like his hair and the shape of his eyes) make him adorable. And this opening scene’s energy is carried throughout the rest of the illustrations. The colors used are bright and engaging, and definitely helped direct the tone of the book. However, I have a few criticisms. The illustration on page 13 felt confusing. First glance makes it look that André has fallen and hurt himself, but that wasn’t what was happening in the story. I think this is because it’s hard to illustrate emotional distress when the causes are internal.

Another thing is the fluctuation on whether the background of illustrations meet the edges of the page or don’t, this inconsistency may not affect whether a reader enjoys the book or illustrations, but it does give it an amateurish flair. There are two different scenes in which André is running. The first scene has a motionless André positioned oddly behind himself running. To create the effect of motion, I would rather the various Andrés be positioned left to right. The second scene looks like a copy-and-paste of the same situation, sans the odd standing in the background—except André is wearing a different outfit. The illustrations are truly adorable, we just need the editor to have done a better job at putting the book together.

Text: The storyline is excellent. I felt that the author did justice to the various emotions a child will feel upon a new sibling’s arrival. The conflict is resolved by André getting to hold the new baby and realize he loves his sibling. More than that, the author didn’t put a Band-Aid over André’s insecurities by acting like everything will continue as normal. Instead we see André choose to engage in the change that has come into his home. The only criticism I have with the text is not the words themselves, but the positioning on the page. Sometimes the text exists outside the illustration on the borders and sometimes positioned over the illustrations. There is also a page in which André’s in-illustration dialogue appears in red instead of the black used in all the other scenes (with no apparent reason for this change). Again, these issues seem to be with how the book was put together.

The rating I would give André is the Best Big Brother would be 3 stars. The illustrations were cute and carried the story, despite the criticisms I had. The storyline was solid, and I felt like the author did her due diligence by not ending with the first resolution. André’s parents helped him navigate the emotions of insecurity for the first problem, and André used his brain to navigate the second problem. I feel like there’s loads someone with a degree in child development could say about this book. But as I don’t have that degree, I will simply say I think this book would have a positive influence. The primary thing keeping André is the Best Big Brother from a higher ranking is the inconsistency in format and the rough edges that weren’t sorted out before publication.

Kathryn Pearson is a guest reviewer for the Two Bluestockings, chosen for this review because of her expertise in children's literature. When she is not saving the world as a super librarian, she can usually be found tucked into a corner with a book and mug of coffee or tea. She and Jayna have spirited conversations about literature--from disagreeing over who is better Dickens or Austen, to the longer discussions of the relevance of classic literature to sociological concerns of the modern age.