How Big Is It?

by Ben Hillman

A big book all about bigness!

This BIG title removes the confusion of the abstract by teaching size through eye-catching juxtaposition in "oh wow!" images. For instance, any idea about the size of the mysterious Giant Squid of the deep? Sure, you could read that it's 59.5 ft. long. While that sounds impressive enough, it's a little abstract. However, when you see a full-color illustration of a Giant Squid placed in front of the entire length of a farmhouse, you get a real idea of what 59.5 feet means!

Genres: Nonfiction, Picture Books, Childrens, Science

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[CH13_Meghan Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

How Big Is It? is an informational book that compares incredibly large items to ordinary everyday items. For example, the world's largest spider is compared to the outer rim of a dinner plate; the world's largest telescope is compared to the height of the Eiffel Tower. Students would truly understand the greatness of these items as they are compared to seemingly ordinary recognizable items. Each page is filled with large photographs that depict the immense size of these.

I enjoyed reading this informational book--and learned a lot about the size of many mammoth objects!! This book would be a great read for elementary school students who are beginning to read (as there is little text) or learning about size. In addition, I could see this book being extremely interesting for middle school students! I had this book sitting on the corner of my desk and several of my middle school students flipped through the book "oohing" and "aahhing" as they turned each page. Several of my middle school students consistently read fictional novels, however, this picture book would be a great way to peak their interest about nonfictional text--especially now with the integration of the CCS.

[Sam Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that I would have been obsessed with as a child. Computer-generated photos use perspective and ratio to show giant things (a giant squid, the Goliath Bird-eating Spider, the Arecibo Radio Telescope) in relation to something else (a two-story house, a dinner plate, and the Eiffel Tower, respectively) to show just how *giant* the giant things are. Interesting and humorous information can be found in the sidebars. Awesome stuff, and a must-booktalk for tweens on school visits.

[Nichole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cool concept. It would be nice to see one with updated pictures, though. These are very early 2000s.

[Collin Powell]

This non-fiction book presents different objects that the student wouldn’t be familiar with and shows how big they are by comparing them to, for instance, houses, states and dinner plates that the student would know the size of. This is helpful because it gives students a sense of the physical size of objects that they would rarely, if ever, come into contact with.
I liked the book but think it would be more effective if it cut down on a little on the variety of objects it showed and, maybe, just focused on animals or monuments alone. The illustrations were photographs with stock images, which worked out quite well but was not particularly artistic.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me realize that I have grabby hands and am attracted to sparkly objects. It greeted me from out the staff corridor at work, sitting innocently on the children's book shelf.

But it was full of interesting big things. The biggest polar bear stood up at 12 feet, the giraffe eats acacia leaves, the solar system has huge stars that are millions of light years away so that if they exploded it would look like they were still there for millions of years even if they weren't. Pyramids, volcanoes, and valleys...makes a girl want to learn about Mars.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous fun! My five-year old grandsons adored this book as much as I did. Photo shopped photos compare BIG things to familiar objects, giving kids a really tangible sense of just how big is big. There is a polar bear standing next to a basketball hoop, a flying dinosaur compared to a jet plane and a huge spider on a dinner plate. The images jump off the page and the text is humorous and fascinating. We've been reading this over and over ;-) Great all ages book!

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful illustrations inserting the subject in a scene for size comparisons! Great teaching book for kids - whether they are visual learners or just love reading facts in text. Fourth and fifth graders will appreciate the book as a whole, but younger kids can learn the size comparisons from the visual art alone, if you "read" them the tale by abridging the book, in your own words.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

--grades 2-8
--bigness is sometime hard to comprehend when you have no reference for comparison.
--author takes things students know the size of and compares them with objects they may not know.
--Great Pyramid of Giza is 8 train-cars tall
--Polar Bear on a basketball court
-- Steve Jenkins also has some great books for comparing speeds, size, and weight with common objects.

[The Reading Countess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The amazing photos detailing precisely how large an object being discussed makes this book. The side by side comparison within each well done photo allows the reader to envision the scale. My favorite? The Ice Age Glacier in comparison to the skyline of Chicago. Stunning!

[Ari Slauson · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really like this book. I think it had some really good facts and pictures that children would think is interesting. i think this is a great book to have in the classroom for children to look at. I wish i had this book when i was younger.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice picked out this oversize book at the library describing the size of things in relation to other things. We didn't go through all the narratives, but we compared all the pictures and talked about the size of things. It was fun.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

COOL

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many cool facts and illustrations. I would've loved this book as a kid. Oh let's face it... I love it now!

[Tanya Wadley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool stuff. Hard to sit and do through one or two readings. Full of interesting facts about big things.

[Phoebe]

Huge photo spreads and minimal text make this just right for a little browser--a great way to illustrate actual size. Check out the polar bear, and the dinner-plate sized tarantula.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing info about how big things can b. Googol waffles is 10 billion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion times the size of the universe.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating. This goes into the school library. Did you know the biggest tsunami ever was over 1700 feet high? Cool graphics too.

[Arvin antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was funny when i saw the polor bear!

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stuff. Don't read it Jana it will freak you out. For Caleb's eyes only!

[Mas5thgrade2012 · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was reading this book, I saw a picture of a snake and i showed it to my friend and she freaked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-PB+j23

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and interesting, the way good non fiction for children should be. Interesting & amazing photo shopped pictures.

[Jc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you just do not understand how big something is until you compare it with something else that you can identify. That is what this book does. Amazing.

[Candi]

Ages 7 to 10

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for elementary. The altered pictures were fun and some good information.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

ellie loves this one