Actual Size
From AwardAnnals
| Book: | Actual Size |
|---|---|
| Author: | Steve Jenkins |
| Honors: | |
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| Publisher: | Houghton Mifflin Company |
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Reviews
Amazon.com
Steve Jenkins (What Do You Do with a Tail Like This ?) returns with another inventive, involving picture book — this time inviting young readers to see how they measure up against a variety of different animals (represented in colorful, cut-paper collages at actual size).
Each spread of Actual Size presents a new animal or two for readers to check out, along with a few interesting facts and physical dimensions. Some of the colorful collages display the entire animal at actual scale (like the fleshy, 36-inch length of a giant Gippsland earthworm) while others can only feature what fits on the page (an African elephant’s foot, a Siberian tiger’s face, or even just a gaping maw sporting a few four-inch-long teeth of a great white shark). Two fun fold-outs show a Goliath frog (“It’s big enough to catch and eat birds and rats”) and the long, toothy smile of a saltwater crocodile (“the world’s largest reptile…a man-eater”).
Jenkins’ collages capture the texture and color of these cut-out creatures, and the thoughtful inclusion of an illustrated index shows each animal in its scaled-down entirety, accompanied by longer, fact-filled descriptions. While younger kids might not appreciate the subtlety of the book’s clever “actual-size” trope, readers young and old will love all the close-up views and learn a few things along the way. (Ages 4 to 8) —Paul Hughes
Barnes and Noble
Caldecott Honor winner Steve Jenkins delivers this mammoth-sized animal book that shows moths, ostrich heads, anteater tongues, and other animal features in actual size. Working with stunning torn- and cut-paper collages set against stark white backgrounds, Jenkins briefly describes exotic animals—listing their length, weight, and other stats—as he showcases what makes each of them so remarkable. Whether it’s a Goliath birdeater tarantula at a gargantuan 12 inches across, a pygmy mouse lemur at 2½ inches tall next to a gorilla’s hand, or an eye-popping fold-out of a saltwater crocodile’s head, Jenkins’s life-size depictions of animals—accompanied by extended blurbs in the back—are a wondrous treat.
