Valuing One’s Self

Mackesy argues through his drawings and text that every person should value himself despite his size, weaknesses, or fears. The beauty of this story is that the characters encourage one another to do this.They build each other up by finding positive and true things to say about the others regardless of the others’ faults.

The story opens with the boy encouraging the mole. Before the boy and mole are even friends, the mole insinuates that he feels insignificant because he is so small. Instead of focusing on the size of the mole, the boy chooses to find something positive to say about the mole. He tells the mole: “you make a huge difference” (3).

Once the group of friends learns that the fox does not speak because he feels he does not have anything interesting to say, they encourage him. It is the...