Much Bigger than Martin

Much Bigger Than Martin

Story and pictures by Steven Kellogg

1976

Steven Kellogg’s Much Bigger Than Martin features the story of a little brother Henry, who feels put down by his older brother Martin, and comes up with a grand plan to grow bigger than him.

As soon as we open the book to the title page, we can tell mischief is a-brewin’ in this picture book. We see a giant-sized boy on the left with a miniature version of himself standing in the foreground looking smug, as the giant tosses a basketball through a hoop on the far right side of the page, where it is about to hit another unknowing boy in the head.

When we open to the first page of text, we notice something striking: a large portion of the pages are white, and the illustrator only uses the colors light blue, yellow, gray, white, black, and a greenish hue. Even though he limits himself to this mostly pastel theme, each of his images is vivid and detailed.

The story opens with, “Sometimes it’s fun being Martin’s little brother.” This page has four different framed images, all of which display instances when it’s “fun” to be the little brother: piggy back rides across the yard, swinging on the playset, playing football together, and reading in the living room. On the next page however, the mood changes as the text reads, “But I hate it when he says, ‘Let’s form a line. The biggest is first. The smallest is last.’” This page features a large framed illustration, with a thought bubble leading up to a smaller framed illustration in the top left corner. This thought bubble explores the imagination of a young child and is featured throughout the book. It represents what Henry is imagining in his head, or, when the bubble is above Martin, what Henry imagines his brother is thinking.

We have quickly learned that this story is told from the point of view of the younger boy, Henry. The author/illustrator does a good job of making emotional connections through his pictures, so much that the text doesn’t have to: it is clear when Henry is happy and when he is upset, as supported by the illustrator’s details in facial expressions and body language of the characters. Even the family cat is featured in a majority of the pictures and sympathizes with Henry, expressing the happiness or frustration that he is feeling.

I believe Henry’s predicament of being too small to do the things that big kids can is a theme of the book that young children can relate to easily. I personally was immediately able to sympathize with Henry due to childhood experiences I had, feeling left out by my older cousins. To remedy the situation, Henry decides to do anything he can to grow bigger than his brother. The thought bubbles multiply as he envisions himself sprouting into a giant. His imagination soars as he tries stretching and watering himself, then settles on eating many apples due to his Grandpa’s advice that they would make him grow. When Henry tells Martin his plan, Martin teases him further, and we see a giant thought bubble I which Martin features Henry the giant apple in the circus. The details in this picture struck me: you can practically hear the circus audience heckling and jeering at poor Henry as he is made a spectacle on stage. Kellogg even incorporates the personality of the giant in the well-known fairytale, “Jack and the Beanstalk” : “ ‘You’ll be sorry, Martin,’ I said. ‘When I’m a giant, I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.’” To represent this image, Kellogg creates the most intricate image of the entire book; we see an incredibly detailed factory, in which Henry the giant stuffs his brother down a shoot labeled “The Bond Grinder,” which can “poach,” “mash,” and “scramble,” among other functions.

Yet the story ends well, with a great lesson for young readers. Henry learns that his brother was just his size when he was Henry’s age, and Martin and their father build a shorter basketball hoop just for Henry’s reach. But when Martin suggests an ape hunt game the next day, Henry politely replies, “ ‘That doesn’t sound like much fun. Besides, I’m making something in the garage.’” And to everyone’s surprise, we turn the next page and see no words; only a smiling Henry coming out of the garage on stilts, his brother looking up, shocked, from the foreground.