Giants

Two diminutive beings, Sweet Pea and Boogaloo are taking a woodland walk ‘under the trees, under the sun and the green leaves’, when Sweet Pea spies ‘Giants’. As their journey continues she questions her companion about these creatures, whom Boogaloo claims to know all about. He responds by painting gruesome pictures of how horrible they are. Sweet Pea though, is sceptical and Maland also shows us just how wrong Boogaloo’s preconceptions are for, this particular ‘giant’ (a child-sized human) is overseeing their progress and helping them on their way.

Young audiences love to be in the know and by reading the pictures they are able to appreciate the mismatch between what is being said and what is actually happening. Maland’s watercolours, mostly in delicate shades of green, yellow and brown, and embellished with fine cross-hatched patterns, create a strange and fantastic world as viewed from just above ground level. There’s a lesson here too about the importance of not accepting unquestioningly, the opinions of others, but instead finding out for yourself.