Little Critter Dreams of Being Not-So-Little

It's right there in his name: Little Critter is a tiny tyke. In Mercer Mayer's When I Get Bigger, he hasn't even hit first grade yet, but he's got big dreams. We see him on the first page, eyes wide, smile expansive, hands behind his back in a clear "I'm going to tell you a story" position. He's unclothed, but on the floor beside him is a blanket, which he presumably just dropped and which we see wrapped around him on a couple of occasions later in the book, when he's not wearing a green-striped t-shirt or some other garment.

Also on the floor is a raggedy stuffed rabbit that he's not quite ready to renounce in spite of his eagerness to be older, and, not on the first page but on most of the others, there's a small gray mouse who keeps Little Critter company throughout the book. It helps that he's not contemplating life as an adult, which is just as well, since Little Critter is stuck more or less in suspended animation; he hasn't aged more than a couple years in three decades. But he does age enough to make a few of the dreams in this book come true.

Little Critter doesn't long for anything too unreasonable, but he anticipates the future with such fervent passion that the simplest of opportunities seem golden through his eyes. He wants to go to the corner store and buy himself candy - something I did for many years when we were fortunate enough to have a Lawson's, and then Dairy Mart, just down the street. He wants hop a bus out of town to visit his grandparents all by himself, dressed in his Sunday best with a nametag attached. I'll confess that I'm 26, and the notion of traveling solo still makes me nervous, though it's something I intend to do at least once this year.

It's a mark of how considerate Little Critter is that some of his dreams involve helping people. He wants to be old enough to tell time so he can announce the time to anyone who happens to need it, and he wants to be just a bit stronger so he can push younger children on the swings at the playground. He's also honest about his limitations. He knows that he's afraid of the dark and things that go bump in the night, so even if he's allowed to camp out all night, he might be a little scared while executing this privilege. He also knows that although he doesn't want to go to bed when his parents tell him to, he's tired, so if they let him stay up to watch a late movie, he would have to struggle to stay awake.

When I Get Bigger is a cute book for children who haven't quite grown into everything they want to do. Parents, meanwhile, will see the near future in Little Critter's daydreams and recognize what a short time will pass before these things can be accomplished. This is a bittersweet notion, but Mayer's style is so charming that closing the book with a smile is a must. It probably won't be too long before the recipient of this story has outgrown Little Critter; it's time to savor the moments.