A Giant Man from a Tiny Town

Pleasant and perfectly serviceable look at the Cape Breton Giant, a circus goliath who topped out at seven foot nine, got to meet Queen Victoria, but knew that ultimately the people in his home village looked up to him for what he did and how he helped them out, and not because of his freakish stature. The message, that the manner of man (or woman) one chooses to be is more important than looks, is always salient. I had thought we'd seen the last of twee farm animals looking over their fence to watch the main character leave home as if they know what's going on and have an opinion about it, but the old-fashioned style here isn't at odds with the nature of the story.

Nicely done picture book about a man who becomes a circus exhibition, then quits it all to return home again.

There have been several books about such people, oddities that were exhibited during the height of that sort of thing in Victorian times, and it is interesting to see how their life went before and after the circus.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is a children's book about a remarkable young man who grew to be 7'9" tall. The book is a short but sweet biography told in story format about Angus MacAskill's life and how even though he became famous for being the tallest man in the world and seeing the world he felt small and alone and realised home was actually where his family and friends were who accepted and loved him for who he was rather than what he was.

This is a lovely story for children and the illustrations were befitting to the time period of the book too.