Just the Right Size: Why Big Animals Are Big and Little Animals Are Little

by Nicola Davies, Neal Layton (Illustrator)

Overview

"Nicola Davies is the best thing to happen to biology classes since the invention of the filmstrip." —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

Did you ever wonder why there are no high-flying superheroes in real life? Find out what keeps big animals (like us) from performing amazing feats of strength and agility, yet why being tiny and powerful might have a downside. What if you could lift fifty times your weight (hello, ant), but getting wet could kill you? Or you could soar like a bird, but a cold breeze would do you in? From an award-winning duo, an intriguing look at what it means to be just the right size. Back matter includes an index and a glossary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763653002
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/08/2011
Series:	Animal Science
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	1,055,814
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 5.80(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	NC1080L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Nicola Davies has written many award-winning books for children, including POOP, EXTREME ANIMALS, and WHAT'S EATING YOU?, as well as BIG BLUE WHALE, ONE TINY TURTLE, SURPRISING SHARKS, and BAT LOVES THE NIGHT. She lives in Somerset, England.

Neal Layton is the illustrator of POOP, EXTERME ANIMALS, and WHAT'S EATING YOU? He lives in Portsmouth, England.

Editorial Reviews

Layton’s…crystal-clear diagrams, diverting strip panels, and spirited spot art all interpret biology in their own deliciously weird way. Davies is the best thing to happen to biology since the invention of the filmstrip, and kids who thought they’d never care about a science precept will be delighted to acquire killjoy information to spout during sci-fi horror movies.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

From the Publisher

This witty and informative book uses the "Big Thing, Little Thing" rule (which explains how the length, surface area and cross section of an object or creature are relative to its volume and weight-thus, there are no "car-sized spiders") to explore how size affects living things. Davies's often humorous text and Layton's energetic illustrations demonstrate why humans don't have superpowers ("we'd need toes tens of thousands of times bigger than a gecko's to hold us on the ceiling"), and later spreads discuss the advantages and limitations of being very small or very big ("Small animals have a bigger outer surface area for their volume than big animals, so they have trouble keeping warm"). The spot-on comic delivery and readily comprehensible explanations make this a prime pick for readers curious about physical science in the natural world. Ages 8-up. (July)

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Publishers Weekly

Gr 4–8—This unique title uses geometry to discuss the varying strengths and capabilities of different animals. In a chatty tone, Davies starts off by describing the strict rules that control what bodies can and cannot do. She goes on to explain how the strongest animals are much smaller than humans. "Some important features of bodies—like how much food and air they need—depend on volume and weight. Others—like the strength of muscles—depend on cross section or surface area." This is the basis for the BTLT (Big Thing, Little Thing) Rule: "If you DOUBLE the length of something, its surface area and cross section go up FOUR times, while its volume and weight go up EIGHT times!" BTLT is used throughout to explain why humans cannot fly, yet Arctic terns can travel 20,000 miles every year from pole to pole and back again. Humans cannot lift buses, but the rhinoceros beetle can lift 850 times its own weight. The author uses clear language and engaging examples throughout. Cartoon illustrations add humor and clarity to the book. A handy introduction to animal sizes.—Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

The pair behind such child-friendly explorations as Poop and What's Eating You? (2004, 2007) deliver a similarly windily subtitled discussion of size in the animal kingdom. The pair begins by describing how the doubling of a creature's length increases its surface area and cross-section (and therefore muscle power) by a factor of four and its weight and volume by a factor of eight-leading to such conclusions as, "That's how ants can be stronger than humans!" They go on to explore how increasing the size of a creature necessitates increasing complexity, explaining how single-celled organisms can get by with osmosis but mammals require respiratory and digestive systems. The tongue-in-cheek tone, concrete examples and Layton's undeniably appealing cartoons will go a long way with kids, as will the compact trim and one-topic-per-spread organization. But as a science book, it flirts with oversimplification. While evolution is mentioned multiple times, for instance, the concept of survival of the fittest is given short shrift, leaving unqualified such teleological assertions that gibbons attained their modern, house-cat size because "having a nice, light little body was very useful." A shame. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews