Tiny Worlds: A Story About Appreciating the Small Things

Cicchese explores perspective-taking and presence in this quiet tale about noticing a landscape’s “small things.” First-person descriptions establish the protagonist as a dreamy child drawn to pint-size pleasures—including a doll-house-like “Tiny Town” they construct from homemade and repurposed items. The speaker’s grandmother, by contrast, gravitates to more stimulating and invigorating activities. When the pale-skinned duo head to the playground, the child finds it “too loud,” preferring to “listen to the soft plop of dewdrops” at a nearby pond. The pattern continues until the child opens up about the “tiny worlds” they notice: “I feel like I’m the only one who sees them.” The youth’s honesty both prompts a deeper connection between the pair and drives home the value of being present in the world and with others. Ages 3–7. (Jan.)