Ants Rule: The Long and Short of It

by Bob Barner

The ants need to plan the Blowout Bug Jamboree! But how can they build a thrilling carnival ride for the festival if they don't know how many bugs will come, or how big those bugs will be? This is a colorful and fun-filled introduction to nonstandard measurement, comparison, and organizing and representing data. As caterpillars, butterflies, and other insects are measured and compared in lengths of ants, an amazing plan unfolds. Just in time for the jamboree, the ants put the final touches on the perfect roller coaster, seen in a deluxe gatefold spread.

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, Animals

40 pages, Hardcover

Published February 21, 2017

About the author

Bob Barner has been drawing since he was three years old. He graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design, then moved to Boston where he was an art director at several advertising agencies and design studios. He was hired to help comic strip creator Al Capp draw Li'l Abner and studied with Milton Glaser at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He lives with his wife, Cathie, in San Francisco, California, where, in 2004, he was honored as a San Francisco Library Laureate.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cut- and torn-paper collage illustrations filled with colors and textures accompany lessons in graphing and measuring. The images feature ants, a bee, a caterpillar, and a ladybug. There are many activities associated with the ants' building of a Blow-out bug Jamboree. I like how the data is represented and the use of pie graphs. The planning of the jamboree itself wasn't all that appealing to me, but the rest of the book worked because of the use of the tables and even ants inching along a ruler at the bottom of some pages. This book might provide a good introduction to size and length as well as a bit of comparing and contrasting.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a story, it's more a math book. The ants are supposedly planning a big party and need to measure a whole bunch of stuff (like how big each other insect is and how many insects are coming). A bee is only 2 ants long but a bettle is 3 ants long. There's graphs and pie charts and such and discussion of who is shorter or longer, ant or bee? Etc. Etc. This is a great intro book for some of these concepts if you have a kid who loves bugs, but definitely not for my preK story times here at the library.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

adorable

[Kathy (Kindle-aholic) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about measurements. The little one loved it.

[Mary Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a fun book to use to introduce measurement and graphing. Also great for math words like longest, shortest, etc.

[Zoraida Rivera Morales · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations were lovely, lively and colorful. Kids who love bugs might find it interesting, but for many kids it might seem more like a textbook.

[Hezekiah Huang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan of math YET

[Geo Hendrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful it made a story out of math!

[Kelly Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for teaching math concepts including: measuring and graphing.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Size, bigger, shorter, adding, subtracting

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great basic introduction to measurement and math concepts of graphing.

[Tracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ants compare the sizes of different bugs.

[Teresa Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful bright collage illustrations, using paper from around the world, are the highlight of this bug measuring book. The ants have a plan, but they need measurements. What unit of measure should they use? An ant, of course! The caterpillar is four ants long, the bee is two...and so it goes. Charts, graphs, and comparisons follow. But what are the ants building? This is a nice introduction to measuring that kindergarteners and their teachers will enjoy.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun introduction to the concepts of measuring and graphing.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barner, Bob Ants Rule: The Long and Short of it. PICTURE BOOK. Holiday House, 2017. $17.

The ants are planning a surprise fro the insect friends, but before they can finish, they need to measure all of the bugs. Being ants, of course, everyone is measured based on standard ant length – measured and compared and ordered.

Barner’s collage art is very cute and the ants’ measuring and comparing is a fun lesson for lower elementary or very low students. What I don’t really get is the end – why did the ants need to do all that measuring for their surprise? The math teachers that I showed the book to made the same comment.

EL (K-3) – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2017/...

[Mrs. Melaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can throw away your rulers. There’s a new mode of measurement in town -- ants! As part of their preparations for the Bug Jamboree, adorable ants measure other bugs using themselves as the unit of measurement. A ruler composed of ants runs along the bottom of many of the pages. Their findings, displayed in a chart, make it easy to see that a caterpillar is four ants long, but the bee is only two ants long. Vocabulary for comparing sizes is introduced, “Who is longer? Caterpillar or Bee?” Other ways to organize data (pie chart, table) are shown, too. All the bugs are so cute and cheerful. At the end, the ants reveal the wonderful surprise they made – a big roller coaster Buggy Go Round for all the bugs to use that is so large, it takes up a double set of foldout pages! Recommend to anyone who would like to teach beginning math concepts to young children in a fun way. The large, clear images on white background and short text make this a winner for storytime, too.

[Jennifer Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kids really seemed to enjoy this in storytime. Lots of interaction!

[Cristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great colorful and fun-filled book to introduce children to nonstandard measurement, comparison and organizing and representing data. They measure all sorts of insects from caterpillars, butterflies, and compare them to their own ant bodies as they try to find the best way to build the perfect roller coaster.

[Mrs Mommy Booknerd http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great way to introduce kids to nonstandard measurement, comparison, organizing and representing data. I loved that Barner took complicated concepts and presenting them in a way that kids can understand. It is bright and colorful, which is one of the first things young readers will notice and love. It is so much fun to try to figure out the lengths of all the bugs, as well as the number of bugs, so they can all be part of the jamboree. It was sheer delight and I cannot wait to share with with my 123, ABC class as well as get a copy of this book into the school classrooms. There is something very special about books that both engage and teach children. When books do so in a way that is both fun and entertaining, then the book is a HUGE hit! This book is one of those very special books!!!

[Erin Long]

Upon first reading the title, one might think Ants Rule is more relatable to science content. However, it actually fits better with math curriculum. Ants Rule compares and contrasts different types of bugs. This book is perfect for teaching measurements (length), how to make charts/graphs, and comparing sizes. Ants Rule is best suited for grades K-2.

[Tracie]

Colorful illustrations introduce readers to comparative sizes and data organization strategies via a delightfully buggy way to measure.