What's Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?

by Robert E. Wells, Robert E. Wells (Illustrator)

Overview

1996 CBC/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book

A pygmy shrew is small—it's among the littlest mammals! A ladybug is even smaller, but it hardly seems tiny when you compare it to a protozoa! And there are many things smaller still—so small that we can see them only with a microscope. Would you believe there are particles that are so tiny that we can't measure their exact size? Explore the huge world of the very small!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807588383
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	01/01/1995
Series:	Wells of Knowledge Science Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.50(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	AD790L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Robert E. Wells is the author and illustrator of many award-winning science books for children, including Can You Count to a Googol? and Why Do Elephants Need the Sun?. He lives with his wife in Washington.

Robert E. Wells is the author and illustrator of many award-winning science books for children, including Can You Count to a Googol? and Why Do Elephants Need the Sun?. He lives with his wife in Washington.

Read an Excerpt

What's Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?

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By Robert E. Wells

ALBERT WHITMAN & Company

Copyright © 1995 Robert E. Wells
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8075-8838-3

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CHAPTER 1

How small would you say that small really is? Is something you can hold in your hand, like a blueberry, small? How about a grain of sand?

Yes, it's true we could call those things small. But in this book, you'll find much, MUCH smaller things—things you cannot ordinarily see.

Unless, of course, you look through a MICROSCOPE.

An ordinary (optical) microscope bends light rays in a way that makes objects appear larger than they really are. With this you can see things you may not have known existed. You can discover, for example, that many tiny creatures live inside a single water drop. But did you know that there is a world of things too small to be seen with an ordinary microscope? To see these things, you need to use a much more powerful instrument-an electron microscope, which uses electrons rather than light rays to scan images. This is the kind that many scientists use.

The world of the Very Small is almost unbelievably tiny, and hard to imagine. But it's quite real. In fact, it's just as real as a blueberry.

Everyone knows you can stretch your mind by thinking big. Do you suppose it's also possible to stretch your mind by thinking small?

This is a PYGMY SHREW. From the end of her nose to the tip of her tail, she's only about 3 inches (7 ½ centimeters) long.

If you were a pygmy shew, you'd feel mighty small. Even some TOADS TOOLS would be taller than you!

If you happened to meet an ELEPHANT, you'd probably think you were the smallest thing in the UNIVERSE!

Compared to an elephant, the largest land mammal, she looks very small indeed.

But pygmy shrew, you're not so small. Not compared to a LADY BUG.

Lady bugs are a kind of beetle, and beetles are just one of the many kinds of insects. Pygmy shrews are insect eaters, but they prefer to leave lady bugs alone. They know that lady bugs have a bitter taste!

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from What's Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells. Copyright © 1995 Robert E. Wells. Excerpted by permission of ALBERT WHITMAN & Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

1996 CBC/NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book

"This lighthearted look at size features engaging pen and acrylic illustrations and a clear, informative text. The pygmy shrew is a good choice for a guide through the world of the very small."—The Horn Book Guide

"The acrylic-and-ink artwork includes touches of humor…Wells introduces a challenging concept in a way that will entertain and intrigue young children."—Booklist

From the Publisher