Big, Bigger, Biggest!

by Nancy Coffelt

How would you describe a hippopotamus? Big might be the first word that comes to mind. What about a whale? Gigantic? Immense? How about enormous! What if you had to find a word for the biggest animal of them all—a dinosaur. Mammoth? Humongous? Colossal!

With its bright pictures of animals in all shapes and sizes, this terrific read-aloud introduces young children to the language of comparisons, synonyms, and antonyms.

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

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2009

About the author

Nancy Coffelt is an author and artist from Portland, Oregon - best known for her work on childrens' and young adult books, including Fred Stays With Me and Listen.
She often features dogs in her work, and a lot of her stories revolve around dogs. Her art has been featured in galleries, and she illustrates several of her own books.

Reviews

[Miss Pippi the Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very impressed with this picture book for children. It reminded me of this quote I saw once, "Children's books actually contain 50% more rare words than prime time television." The language of comparisons, synonyms, and antonyms contained in this short book is amazing! There were words I've rarely or never heard of and some words I didn't know how to pronounce. Way to go, Author Coffelt for opening the world of words to adults and children!

Theme: Size

Reviewed from a library copy.

[Tdavis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This vocabulary enriching book is filled with great, terrific, fantastic synonyms and adjectives. The bright cartoony illustrations are sure to make children giggle.

Early Literacy Skills:

Phonological Awareness
Print Awareness
Print Motivation
Vocabulary

[Teresa Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book! So wonderful to encourage kids to enlarge their vocabulary! I slowed down at on the pages about hunger, and encouraged my young listeners to choose one of the words to use that night when they saw their parents -- "I'm rapacious!" They thought that was hilarious, and had fun choosing a special "hunger" word. Teachers especially like this book! It's a winner all around!

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vocabulary building books don't get more simple or engaging. This is an excellent book for kids and parents alike.

[Taylor Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Copyright: 2009
Number of pages: 32
Book format: print
Reading level: pre-k-2; GR level N/A
Genre: fiction
Lit requirement: concept book

Big, Bigger, Biggest by Nancy Coffelt introduces synonyms and antonyms when describing animals with adjectives. For axample, a hippo calls itself big and give synonyms. A killer whale claims it is bigger and give more synonyms, but the elephant declares itself the biggest and give three more synonyms. This repeats with different adjectives and animals.

I rated this book five stars because it is an easy read, but it also gives readers words to use and replace adjectives that are not very attractive. This book could be used in lessons that talk about spicing up students' writing.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of crazy vocabulary in this one, yet somehow it's still appropriate for toddlers! Bright illustrations are a perfect compliment to what isn't really a story line, but more a comparison of the characteristics of different animals. Still, the toddlers will enjoy the comparisons and the preK crowd will enjoy saying the big words with the reader so this will make a nice addition to a story time about size.

[Lorilynn Pumphrey]

Copyright - Nancy Coffelt
Number of Pages - 32
Book Format - Print
Reading Level - Grades K - 2
Genre - realistic fiction
Lit Requirement - Concept Books

Summary: Take a look, glance, or peak inside this book you won’t regret it!

Response: In my opinion, this book is an okay read. There’s not really a story being told, but rather using synonyms for each animal being described. It can be used for a synonym lesson but depending on age, this book wouldn’t be a independent read. Some synonyms used are complex and would be for advanced readers!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A colorful, simple, quick story intended for young children that compares different animals and gives vocabulary-building synonyms--the sloth is slow, poky, a laggard, and slothful, while the dragonfly is nimble, rapid, and swift. Children can interact with the story by naming the different animals on the page. A great pick for storytime!

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally got this book for when I was in the classroom to teach about shades of meaning and synonyms, and then never read it... Learned lackadaisical does not mean what I thought it did. I'm unsure how I feel about the sloth being "slothful", and the pig being both "piggish" and "hoggish"... Perhaps a tad too obvious?

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saying the different suffixes became confusing. Most of the pictures left the animals the same size, or didn't show their differences well.
Now, all the synonyms, and how they connected to the pictures, was great!

So! A fun way to learn about synonyms. And makes par for learning about suffixes.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of various adjectives to help kids learn.

[Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it! Simple enough for any age group.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

each animal presented in this book is given an atribute than expanded upon. cute preschool and up

[Donnie Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the synonyms.

[Milton Louie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of big words to describe "big". B

[Colorado Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words I’ve never even heard of in here!!! Very educational.

[Leslie Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love interesting vocabulary and this book delivered!

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about comparisons and synonyms for young children. It is a lot of fun and introduces little ones to many new words.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great vocabulary lesson. Each page has animals and they are either fast, or sleepy, etc. Then they give you other ways to say the same thing.

[Deja Roden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is excellent for teaching vocabulary! I would have never thought that by looking at the cover!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple but attractive paintings accompany synonyms for various adjectives grouped into three intensities for each concept.

[Erica Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great visual way of teaching about size.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for expanding vocabulary in children. Definitely consider for toddler story time.

[Laurel Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for synonyms and enriching vocabulary

[Casandria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to use to talk about synonyms and words in general.
Words

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute and friendly book full of color and personality. I picked it up after seeing it on a list for storytime books. And while I can see where other people could make this into a great storytime book, I am presently not one of them. (That of course isn't the book's fault. Just an observation.) I really liked the range of animals in the book and vocabulary that it presents is almost completely excellent. I also really like how as the book is over, the bats are just starting to come awake.

On the flip side here are the reasons that it wasn't fantastic for me: Some of the illustrations don't really work that well. The squirrel is ok, but the tail took me a minute to figure out with the ridges and the clam is just odd. But my bigger issue is Coffelt's tendency to use words to describe the creatures that are derived from the thing being defined. Telling me a clam is clammy, that the pig is piggish, of that the slug is sluggish is only helpful if you already know the words or the animals. It sort of defeats the point. Now if she had said that the newt was clammy or that the sloth was sluggish, that would have been far more interesting.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book features animals in sets of three. The first three animals are big, bigger biggest. The second group of animals is small, smaller, smallest. The next group is fast, faster, fastest. The final set of animals is sleepy, sleepier and sleepiest.
The illustrations for this book were done in acrylic paint. All of the characters are vibrantly colored. The brushstrokes are visible in each picture, adding interesting texture to every illustration. The animals are all painted on solid colored backgrounds.
This book would be wonderful for a storytime, especially if it was changed to a flannel board story. The storyteller could place each animal on the flannel board and recite the words that go with that animal. The children will love hearing the different animal voices. This book also provides an opportunity to expose children to different words like “colossal” and “lethargic.”

[Gwen the Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I really enjoy about this book of comparatives is the great use of synonyms and unique vocabulary. For example: "I'm fastest! I'm fleet. I'm meteoric. I'm hypersonic!" It would be great to use with preschoolers through 2nd graders because of all the word choices and could launch a fun writing exercise. On the other hand, there are no illustrations actually comparing the sizes, speeds, or other things to get a feel for the comparisons. But then, how do you really show sleepiest? The bright illustrations are simple and engaging.

[Jane G Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to expand your child's vocabulary then this fun picture book is a great start. The concept is such fun--taking "big," and adding synonyms that fit with the word (huge, giant, ect...) and then "bigger" (enormous, gigantic, etc..." and then "biggest" (colossal!) The text explores other fun words a toddler or young child uses, "small," "slimy," "slow."

The simple, yet colorful illustrations fit perfectly with the text. Overall, the concept of the book is executed beautifully!

[Debrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bright, simple, cartoon portraits full of personality of critters who use wonderful synonyms to describe themselves as the fastest ("I'm fleet. I'm meteoric. I'm hypersonic!") or slimiest ("I'm viscous. I'm slippery. I'm slick.") or hungriest... etc. The book concludes with "This book is over. Finished. Ended. Completed. Concluded. Through. Done."

Great for building vocabulary.