How Big is Big? How Far is Far? All around Me

by Little Gestalten (Editor), Jun Cen (Illustrator)

Overview

Each spread invites the child to imagine, test, interact and measure. Designed to be playful in its approach by using relatable comparisons that are brought into the child’s own daily sphere. How Big is Big? How Far is Far? All Around Me was created to inform imaginatively. After all, why not measure how dense the densest fur could be by the size of a thumb? Or think of speed as thought it were a snowflake gliding through the air? Jun Cen’s artwork uses a muted palette and minimal graphics which pay homage to the vintage ladybird pocketbook classics, whilst the design and typography lends it a modern breath for playful learning. How Big is Big? How Far is Far? All Around Me is the follow-on title from the Little Gestalten favourite How big is Big? How Far is Far? Taking new comparisons which focus on our planet, not only will children learn about all the different ways to measure, but they’ll also discover new facts about the incredible world we live in. Warning: parents may need to buy a measuring tape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783899558128
Publisher:	Gestalten
Publication date:	10/31/2018
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Jun Cen is a Chinese artist who is currently based in the US. He is the Overall New Talent winner of the 2013 Association of Illustrators Award. His work has been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, 3 x 3 Illustration Competition and more. His list of clients include: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Verge, Grantland, Oxford UniversityPress, Nobrow and many others.

Editorial Reviews

2018-09-17

An invitation to compare heights, lengths, weights, temperatures, and other relative measures in this German import.

Focusing largely on observations of the natural world, a mix of questions and facts ("Try counting your teeth. How many are there?…Did you know that [adult] humans have the same number of teeth as a cow?") spurs reflection as well as chuckles. The ruminative tone of the narrative is echoed in the China-born illustrator's cleanly drawn, serigraphic-style illustrations, which feature serene-looking animals, twisting lines in a 5,000-year-old pine or the tentacles of a colossal squid, and light- or dark-skinned adults and children, all posed in conjunction on pale-hued, plain backgrounds. Though the language is sometimes confusingly imprecise (it is unclear what is being measured in a claim that an albatross's wingspan is "2.5 times their average height" or a small dinosaur's "length" compared to a supposedly larger mountain goat that is visibly shorter in the picture), the actual units of measure are plainly intended as averages rather than exact figures. Those units (mostly English) are accurate enough in general and sometimes amusingly unconventional to boot: A goliath beetle larva, for instance "weighs more than a bar of chocolate," and a red deer's time in the 100-meter dash easily outpaces Usain Bolt's. A final observation that there are many "surprising things big and small" in the world makes a properly open-ended concluding promise.

A low-key consciousness raiser, more about the fun (and value) of measuring than the importance of accurate results. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews