Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives

by Lola M Schaefer, Christopher Silas Neal (Illustrator)

Overview

A book about picturing numbers and considering the endlessly fascinating lives all around us, Lifetime is sure to delight young nature lovers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452152103
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 11.80(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Christopher Silas Neal is the illustrator of critically acclaimed books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Lola M. Schaefer is the award-winning author of many books for children of all ages. She lives in Georgia.

Editorial Reviews

An original concept that begins simply and ends up surprisingly--and somewhat confusingly--complex. Award winner Schaefer and illustrator Neal team up to create a picture book about the number of times particular events occur in the lifetimes of 11 different animals. Neal's illustrations--appealingly retro in their understated style and muted color scheme--accurately portray the numeric facts presented: "In one lifetime, this female red kangaroo will birth 50 joeys"--and voilà, there's a double-page spread of 50 baby kangaroos. Readers (or listeners) will enjoy counting the joeys, sea horses, alligator eggs or spots on the giraffe. It's all fun and games until the backmatter arrives. Then, facts about each animal (Latin name, habitat, lifespan) and convoluted mathematical explanations of how Schaefer arrived at each of her numbers are presented. A more child-friendly explanation of averages and how to calculate them follows. Readers are invited to use this newly acquired knowledge to ponder two math word problems given at the end of the book. Is this book about the natural world? Counting? Statistics? Solving math word problems? It's hard to say. A great deal of information is presented, for a range of ages. Kudos for not dumbing it down, however. A more cohesive theme would make for a more understandable overall presentation, but readers will get their money's worth. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews