A TREASURE OF MEASURES

Measure with pleasure!

This marvelously written book, expressed in jaunty verses that scan beautifully, teaches readers how to measure all sorts of things, using a variety of standard measuring units, such as seconds, inches, years, decibels, and lumens. (Did we mention that the book is also a nifty vocabulary developer?) Perhaps even more important, the volume challenges youngsters to get creative and “measure” intangibles such as life experiences—including friendship. In other words, “How about getting some measuring done / in ways that are wildly, wonderfully fun?” Readers can measure bike rides not just by distance, but by feeling the “whooshing of wind as we go,” rainfall by how many puddles we can skip and hop into, and growth “in how far we jump, in how high we swing.” And how about considering books not just in terms of the numbers of pages read or time spent reading, but by counting how many monsters are in a story or how many times we laughed, cried, or cheered for the tale’s heroes? Cheerful, dynamic illustrations, rendered in ink and pencil and colored digitally, depict characters who are diverse in terms of race and age. Children will love volunteering their ideas for measuring things in their own lives.

Measure this book in the big smiles it will elicit.