How Heavy?

November 1, 2013

K-Gr 3-This set is fun and silly and compares things familiar to the target audience. For example, in Long, a human tooth is contrasted with a shark's tooth-"3 pointy human teeth, it's the truth, are nearly the length of 1 great white shark tooth." The measurement used- "1 shark tooth = 2 1/2 in. (6 cm); 1 human tooth = 7/8 in. (22 millimeters)"-is provided for each example. Older readers can work the numbers to re-create the comparison. The metric computation doesn't always come out exactly the same, but that could result in a valuable discussion about conversions. The texts are minimal and the rhymes are mostly successful, but these titles are really about the numbers. The digital illustrations are appropriately humorous for the tone. This series contains some extreme comparisons (e.g., one blue whale weighs the same as 3.2 million mice), which some students may struggle with conceptualizing. Overall, these volumes would lead to informative lessons about measurements.

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2013
Preschool-G Forget numbers on a scalehere's a far more interesting way to think about weight. One bulldog's mass equals that of 167 hamburgers. A yellow school bus equals four hippos. And a hedgehog? One hundred and twenty marshmallows. A rhyming text and bright cartoonlike illustrations highlight the impressiveness (and surprising nature) of these relative weights. At the bottom of each spread, actual weights are listed; for instance, a hedgehog weighs 30 ounces (or 850 grams), while a marshmallow barely tips the scale at 0.25 ounces (or 7.1 grams). A brief listing of Internet sites and further resources ties up this title in the Wacky Comparisons series. Kids will surely be tempted to explore measurable objects on their own. A 40-pound kid equals . . . . ?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)