Lifesize

by Sophy Henn

Overview

Come paw to paw with a polar bear and eye to eye with a giant squid! Children can compare their ears with a hare, their teeth with a shark, their tongue with a chameleon and even their bottom with a pygmy hippo! Find fascinating facts and details about all the animals at the back of the book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610677318
Publisher:	Kane Miller
Publication date:	10/01/2018
Series:	Lifesize
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	11.80(w) x 11.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/23/2019

Cleverly designed around the question “How big?” Henn’s oversize book illustrates animals and their parts in real-life size. Clean, bright colors capture everything from an elephant’s toenail to the diminutive bee hummingbird; readers can stare into the startling eye of a giant squid, high-five a polar bear, and gape at a tiger’s (terrifyingly large) maw. Life-size illustrations are marked and interspersed with spreads showing the creature in its habitat with other flora and fauna. Simple text encourages participation with the images—“ROOOAAAARRR like a Bengal tiger!”—and offers basic facts: “Giraffes... are the world’s TALLEST animal so it makes sense that they have an extraordinarily long tongue.” An ingenious visual scale shows the relative sizes of the animals measured against the volume—12 inches square—a neat trick for young readers fuzzy on feet and inches. A read-over-and-over-again delight. Ages 3–up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"As foretold by the title, this oversize, interactive picture book features lifesize illustrations of various animals—or at least the parts that fit on the pages. Young readers are invited to get their toes out and compare toenails with an African elephant, spread their fingers and try to high five a polar bear, or hang a sideways double-page spread underneath their nose to get the effect of a full-on Bengal tiger roar. Not all of the creatures are supersize; smaller specimens include a desert scorpion, Cuban parakeet, and tiny bee hummingbird. Intervening pages offer brief tidbits about behaviors and habitats, and a steady stream of content-based questions reinforce material: Whose tongue is the longest? What other animals live here? (Some of those other animals can be seen in the background). Full-color illustrations cover every page, and the adorable full-size panda face on the cover is hard to resist. The final pages pull all the examples into a comparison chart, and ask readers to estimate where they would fit. This is a great choice for a more STEM-focused storytime, and here's a helpful hint: make sure there's a mirror on hand so that kids can see how they compare for themselves."
— Booklist, STARRED


"Cleverly designed around the question “How big?” Henn’s oversize book illustrates animals and their parts in real-life size. Clean, bright colors capture everything from an elephant’s toenail to the diminutive bee hummingbird; readers can stare into the startling eye of a giant squid, high-five a polar bear, and gape at a tiger’s (terrifyingly large) maw. Life-size illustrations are marked and interspersed with spreads showing the creature in its habitat with other flora and fauna. Simple text encourages participation with the images— “ROOOAAAARRR like a Bengal tiger!”—and offers basic facts: “Giraffes... are the world’s TALLEST animal so it makes sense that they have an extraordinarily long tongue.” An ingenious visual scale shows the relative sizes of the animals measured against the volume— 12 inches square—a neat trick for young readers fuzzy on feet and inches. A read-over-and- over-again delight."
— Publishers Weekly, STARRED


"These oversized nonfiction books are sure to excite little readers as they discover animals and dinosaurs in real-life proportions! Sophy Henn's illustrations aren't only to scale-they're also bright and fun! In Lifesize, young audiences will see how they stack up to a polar bear's paw, a tiger's mouth, a giant squid's eye, and more!" — Little Cub Literacy

"The artwork is big, bold, and interactive, celebrating all of natural colors and textures found in far off places or even some closer to home. “Lifesize” is a unique literary experience that is easy to read and fascinating in measure."
— Nanny Miss Monique

"These would make the perfect gift for animal/dino lovers of any age. Have you had a chance to check out this amazing set yet?"
— Kids Lit is Lit

From the Publisher

2018-09-17

Like it or not, size matters, and Henn shows just how important size can be across 17 animal species found around the world.

The organization is scattershot, jumping from animal to animal, but readers and listeners may not mind this as they're learning a bit about each creature discussed. Nearly every text block ends with an open-ended question or challenge: Can you flap your arms faster than a bee hummingbird's 80 times per second? Whose tongue is longer, yours or a giraffe's? Large spreads—each page is 12 inches square—allow this book to be easily seen from the back of the room. Though the book will easily create choruses of "awwww"s, it may also generate a few "uuuummmm"s, as the facts are brief. Readers learn, for instance, that the male rainbow lizard is normally brown but transforms into rainbow hues "to impress female lizards," but they don't learn how this happens. Backmatter consists of a relative-size chart of many (not all) of the animals discussed. All measurements are in English units only even though the metric system is the international standard. Henn's illustrations, which appear to be digitally created, are bright, bold, and welcoming. Readers are greeted by an arrestingly large panda face and bamboo endpapers, but the only information about pandas is in the backmatter. Panda enthusiasts (and those who judge a book by its cover) will be greatly disappointed.

A mixed bag. (Informational picture book. 8-10)

Kirkus Reviews