Just a Second

Starred review from October 31, 2011
Jenkins brings fresh perspective to the passage of time in a thought-provoking picture book that features his typically
elegant cut-paper collages. With
a particular focus on the natural world and mankind’s impact on it, Jenkins lists diverse events that occur in the space of a second, a minute, an hour, and so on. In one week, a ladybug eats more than 500 aphids, while each month “The world’s human population increases by about 6,556,000 people. (11,616,000 are born and 5,060,000 die).” Jenkins also covers “very quick” and “very slow” amounts of time: a fast ball reaches home plate in “less than 4/10 of a second,” while in one billion years, “Earth will be too hot to support life.” Back matter offers information about life spans, population growth, and Earth’s history. This subtly philosophical examination of time, scale, and the mechanics of life is all but certain to leave readers reconsidering the world and their place in it. Ages 4–8.

Starred review from December 1, 2011

Gr 2-5-This is an entertaining and thought-provoking book about units of time, which may not seem like particularly captivating material until one tries to imagine a bumblebee's wings beating 200 times per second or a person standing at the equator traveling 18 miles in one minute as Earth rotates. Pretty cool, huh? Jenkins's fascinating way of looking at time is bolstered by a wide variety of examples from nature and man, and while many are simply fun, others will give somber pause, like the average use of 19 gallons of fresh water per hour for every person on Earth or the use of 200 billion sheets of letter-size paper in one day. With his trademark torn- and cut-paper collages in rich earth tones, Jenkins renders this package both eye-catching and mind-boggling. Teachers will find good jumping-off points here for math, science, and history discussions. With this browser's delight around, it's a sure bet that more than one young reader will be spotted trying to count blinks per second. (That would be seven.)-Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR

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