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HOW TALL, HOW SHORT, HOW FARAWAY

Name: HOW TALL, HOW SHORT, HOW FARAWAY
Author: David A. Adler
ISBN: 0-8234-1375-6

by David A. Adler ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1999

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Libraries that have been dusting off their old metric system books for years can finally replace them with a bright, new title on measurement from Adler and Tobin. In text and art, they provide an overview of three systems of measurement; half the book is dedicated to the origins of the ancient Egyptian digits, palms, spans, and cubits, as well as Roman paces. The second half turns to the customary and metric systems in use today. Inches, feet, yards, and miles are briefly explained, with comparisons to metric units, from millimeters to dekameters. Wide-eyed cartoon figures are superimposed against cinematic montages of rulers and grids in an eye-catching format; after children have fallen down laughing over Math Curse (1995), this volume offers them practical tools. (Picture book. 6-10)

Pub Date: March 15, 1999

ISBN: 0-8234-1375-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF GRAVITY
by David A. Adler ; illustrated by Anna Raff

- BOOK REVIEW
THE METRIC SYSTEM
by David A. Adler ; illustrated by Edward Miller

- BOOK REVIEW
A PARADE FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON
by David A. Adler ; illustrated by John O’Brien

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ON THE STAIRS

by Julie Hofstrand Larios ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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As she lovingly details the comfortable disarray of a perfectly splendid staircase, a small mouse counts off the stairs in a game she has clearly played many times. The rhyme skips and leaps from “First step. Rain step,” because that’s where her puddle boots are, to the third step, where the window seat is, to the sixth, where she can peer into her own bedroom, to the eleventh where the night light lives, and the twelfth where she can go back down and start again. She’s accompanied by her little sister and readers catch a glimpse at the end of a mother, father, and baby, too. The details are whimsical, and the rhyme infectious. A real treat, perfectly centered on a small child’s perceptions and experience. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 1-886910-34-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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SPOTS

COUNTING CREATURES FROM SKY TO SEA

by Carolyn Lesser ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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In this visual feast from Lesser and Regan (Dig Hole, Soft Mole, 1996), so striking are the oil and gouache wildlife portraits that, despite the counting book framework, numbers are nearly an afterthought. Every spread has a you-are-there quality, as if readers are peering into a rock-strewn stream to spy six fire salamanders or scuba diving alongside one leopard ray in the murky blue. The book opens with an invitation—“Spotted creatures/wait for you. Snoop and find them/count them, too”—as Lesser toys with language, using active verbs to describe the kinds of spots found on each animal: “Staring, rippling, jetting spots” dapple five reef squid; “loping, gazing, nibbling spots” grace seven reticulated giraffes. Although spots are the unifying theme, the creatures have been carefully selected not only for their markings but for their habitats or biomes, identified and outlined in a final glossary. (Picture book. 4-8)