Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This raffish primer on the meaning of ``big'' delivers a healthy, age-appropriate jolt to common assumptions about proportion and numbers. Beginning with a blue whale's flukes (``the `flipper' parts of the tail, all by themselves bigger than most of Earth's creatures''), Wells projects the relative sizes of Mount Everest (20 giant jars filled with 100 blue whales each), the earth, the un, the Milky Way, right out to the universe itself. Child-friendly watercolors show a bag of 100 planet earths dwarfed by the sun, and a crate of 100 ``sun-sized oranges'' inconsequential atop Antares, ``a red supergiant star.'' Somewhat understandably, Wells's pictures and analogies wither as he tackles the magnitude of galaxies and the universe. To prevent readers from choking on these perceptual mouthfuls, valuable introductory and final notes suggest a relatively concrete scale: for instance, counting to a thousand takes about 12 minutes, counting to a million takes 3 weeks at 10 hours per day, but counting to a billion takes a lifetime. Ages 6-11. (Sept.)
Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?
Paperback
$7.99
- ISBN-13: 9780807536568
- Publisher: Whitman, Albert & Company
- Publication date: 01/01/1993
- Series: Wells of Knowledge Science Series
- Pages: 32
- Sales rank: 87,890
- Product dimensions: 10.50(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.10(d)
- Age Range: 4 - 8 Years
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The blue whale is the biggest creature on Earth. But a hollow Mount Everest could hold billions of whales! And though Mount Everest is enormous, it is pretty small compared to the Earth. This book is an innovative exploration of size and proportion.
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Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin
When youngsters want to know How Much Is A Million (Lothrop, 1985), you let David M. Schwartz and Steven Kellogg help you answer, of course. And when they ask Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?, you let Robert E. Wells explain what BIG really is! In his brilliant book, the author/artist helps children visualize what can't be seen: the enormity of our universe, which is bigger than "...a jar of blue whales, a stack of Mount Everests, or even a crateful of sun-sized oranges!"
School Library Journal
Gr 2-3-With its bright primary colors; cartoon illustrations; and readable, conversational text, this picture book will find a niche in most collections. Not a story as such, it begins on the title page with the question, ``Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?'' and answers it in a series of cumulative examples. Millions of blue whales placed into enormous jars and stacked up don't begin to compare to the colossal size of Mt. Everest, just as even 100 Mt. Everests piled up only make up a whisker on the face of the Earth. Taking this comparison to the outer limits of the imagination, Wells ends up with the biggest thing there is-the universe. Librarians and teachers could use this book to introduce units on size, measuring, or relativity. And it would be useful to demonstrate how to make beginning graphs in a fun, accessible way.-Jan Shephard Ross, Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Lexington, KY
From the Publisher
"The title and cover will draw a large audience of small children fascinated by big things."
Booklist
"Librarians and teachers could use this book to introduce units on size, measuring, or relativity."
School Library Journal
"Middle-graders will find here a light and easy read for science class."
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books