Book Review: The Giant

Book Review: The Giant

Author: William Pène du Bois

Date: 1954, 1970

Publisher: Viking

ISBN: none

Length: 124 pages

Illustrations: black-and-white drawings by the author

Quote: “My first instructions to the lad were ferociously firm and severe. ‘You must not pick up anybody without the person’s permission’...”

William Pène du Bois dedicated this one to “My Big Friend I. Lawrence Richter.” It’s a simple story about the point in an impossibly enormous toddler’s life when the Giant begins to learn to talk to normal-sized humans. Pène du Bois couldn’t resist drawing gadgets and contraptions to fit the impossible story, but the story seems also to have been shaped by empathy for the social isolation being larger than, say, 6’6” or 250 pounds tends to impose upon people.

He also couldn’t resist giving the story a touch of sophistication: the narrator, who is American, meets the Giant, who is Spanish, while both are touring the capital cities of Europe. The text is sprinkled with foreign words and descriptions of quaint buildings and exotic menus.

If you’re aware that, according to various laws of physics, it’s impossible for a human body to grow big enough to pick up live elephants and play with them as if they were puppies, suspending disbelief long enough to enjoy The Giant may be hard. Then again, a bit of preposterous imagination might help a normal, fast-growing child feel a little less awkward about being only two or three inches taller than everyone else at school.

All this author’s books were to some extent picture books, and appeal to art collectors as well as to children.