If...: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers

"Some things are so huge or so old that it's hard to wrap your mind around them. But what if we took these big, hard-to-imagine objects and events and compared them to things we can see, feel and touch? Instantly, we'd see our world in a whole new way." So begins this endlessly intriguing guide to better understanding all those really big ideas and numbers children come across on a regular basis. Author David J. Smith has found clever devices to scale down everything from time lines (the history of Earth compressed into one year), to quantities (all the wealth in the world divided into one hundred coins), to size differences (the planets shown as different types of balls). Accompanying each description is a kid-friendly drawing by illustrator Steve Adams that visually reinforces the concept. By simply reducing everything to human scale, Smith has made the incomprehensible easier to grasp, and therefore more meaningful. The children who just love these kinds of fact-filled, knock-your-socks-off books will want to read this one from cover to cover. It will find the most use, however, as an excellent classroom reference that can be reached for again and again when studying scale and measurement in math, and also for any number of applications in social studies, science and language arts. For those who want to delve a little deeper, Smith has included six suggestions for classroom projects. There is also a full page of resource information at the back of the book.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Published: 08/01/2014
ISBN: 9781894786348
Pages: 40
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.60h x 9.75w x 0.40d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2014
Quill & Quire 07/01/2014 pg. 45
School Library Journal 08/01/2014 pg. 113
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2014 pg. 66
Booklist 10/15/2014 pg. 39
Quill & Quire Books of the Yr 12/01/2014 pg. 21
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2015 - Recommended, Satisfactory