Book Review: Actual Size

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jenkins, Steve. 2004. ACTUAL SIZE. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618375945

2. SUMMARY
In this clever book, Steve Jenkins shows readers the actual size of some of the largest and smallest animals in the world. Under each picture, a caption tells the reader the name of the animal, as well as the average height and weight. Some of the creatures are too large to show the actual size of their entire bodies, so Jenkins chooses a particular part of the animal to show full size. For example, unable to fit a 59 ft giant squid on the page, Jenkins focuses on illustrating the actual size of the squid's eye. At the end of the book, more detailed information is given about each animal pictured, including information about where they can be found and what they like to eat.

3. ANALYSIS
This book is perfect for visual learners. It is one thing to tell a person how big an animal is, but measurements can be difficult to conceptualize. In order to fully comprehend what 12 inches or a half an inch means, it is helpful for many to be able to see what those measurements actually look like.

A wonderful thing about this book is that it is not simply illustrating items of common knowledge about animals. Even the child (or adult for that matter) that has done lots of reading about animals in the past will learn something new.

Jenkins' illustrations are essential in this book, as the text mostly serves to support the pictures. The illustrations are all carefully created to the correct measurements out of bits of torn paper.

4. REVIEWS
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "a must-have for any collection"
BOOKLIST: "unusually effective tool for connecting children to nature's astonishing variety"

5.CONNECTIONS
*Have students graph the height and weight of each animal in the book to get the perspective of a side by side comparison.
*Plan an activity where students must choose an animal from the book and find other resources about that animal from the library.