How Long

Children's Literature

Each of the four books in this series is devoted to one of measuring: speed, length, height and mass. In this book, length is examined in simple double page chapters, each titled with a range of inches or feet. The first chapter compares microscopic items from .000004 to .00006 inches. The final chapter identifies the span of a 4,198 feet bridge. The reader progresses from the length of a virus to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge. The text is clear and supports the multiple illustrations on each page, all of which are drawn to scale. In a unique feature, the author has placed the longest thing from the previous chapter in the next chapter so as to provide continuity and contrast. A dwarf gecko is longer than a grain of rice, but it is dwarfed on the next page by a child's foot. At the bottom of all pages the length of the items being measured is given. Frequent sidebars provide additional information pertinent to length comparisons such as the longest sharks and the longest suspension bridges. The book's layout is enhanced by yellow or lavender backgrounds that alternate per chapter and move in shading from dark to light from the bottom of the page to the top. Metric conversions are given in parentheses next to inches and feet. An index is the only back matter. The book will serve as an appropriate jumping off place for readers interested in further study of the length of living things and manufactured objects. 2004, Blackbirch Press/The Gale Group, Ages 8 to 12.
—Jacki Vawter, Ph.D.