November 1, 2013
K-Gr 3-This set is fun and silly and compares things familiar to the target audience. For example, in Long, a human tooth is contrasted with a shark's tooth-"3 pointy human teeth, it's the truth, are nearly the length of 1 great white shark tooth." The measurement used- "1 shark tooth = 2 1/2 in. (6 cm); 1 human tooth = 7/8 in. (22 millimeters)"-is provided for each example. Older readers can work the numbers to re-create the comparison. The metric computation doesn't always come out exactly the same, but that could result in a valuable discussion about conversions. The texts are minimal and the rhymes are mostly successful, but these titles are really about the numbers. The digital illustrations are appropriately humorous for the tone. This series contains some extreme comparisons (e.g., one blue whale weighs the same as 3.2 million mice), which some students may struggle with conceptualizing. Overall, these volumes would lead to informative lessons about measurements.
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