A great way of being context to large concepts

Though this book is entertaining and informative for a child, it is very redundant which means it loses its appeal after some pages. Also I find some of the numbers mentioned in the book very odd, and I failed to find any sources verifying the number the author mentioned.

Helps young readers better understand the relative size of enormous things like the solar system, the ocean, energy consumption, and how we spend our lives. Great for use in a lesson involving scale.

An engaging way to think about proportions and sizes of really big things: continents, oceans, planets, etc.

This book clears everything up about the size of everything. I am very mind blown from this book that I won from the giveaways. I am so much smarter from this "childrens" book.

Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of If from NetGalley. My review was not required to be positive. Any thoughts or opinions expressed below are entirely my own. This review will also appear on NetGalley, Amazon, and my blog, Mediatron.

The gist of If is that enormous, complex concepts can be scaled down into observable, comprehensible examples, such as the scale on a map or a baby doll. There are activity ideas as well as additional resources at the end of the book.

My first complaint is that this book didn't really work in digital format as most of the pages are splayed out across two facing pages. So if you're planning on reading this book, definitely get the physical format.

If is pretty entertaining and educational. The illustrations appear to be oil on canvas and are very cute and colorful. Some of the ideas were more workable than others (the planets becoming balls; the entire lifespan of our planet being scaled down into a year, a day, an hour, and the length of a DVD) because children could try the example with the balls out on their own or easily understand the length of time from one month to the other. However, there were some that didn't make much sense at all. Trying to scale down the Milky Way galaxy into the size of a plate didn't help very much (perhaps scaling it down into the size of the world would have been a better idea) and the numbers were still outrageously large.

I think this is a fun tool to help children to grasp the significance of the things they learn in school and to learn about conservation as well (since many of the topics discuss money, water, energy use, and so on) and would work well with a hands-on project to try some of the ideas out or come up with their own examples.

"If scales down big concepts and invites readers to see the world in a mind-bending new way." (from just jacket) Author David J. Smith has written other books about scale, <>If the World Were a Village and If America Were a Village, but If contains illustrations of all sorts of concepts. Everything from comparisons of the planets in the solar system, to comparing when inventions were made, are all explained and illustrated. A table of contents makes it easy to locate the comparison you are want. There are also suggested activities for teachers and parents and a list of sources. The author explains that when you are talking about such big numbers there is plenty of room for margin, but that he has used the most reliable data he could.

Some of these representations could be used with students - actually taking the objects shown in the illustrations and measuring out the distances between them to show the solar system in scale, for example. I know that those who hold a strictly Creationist view will not approve of the timelines showing the development of life on earth or the history of earth, but there are still other parts of the book that they could comfortably use. The comparisons of energy sources and energy consumption, or those for food production and consumption would make excellent social studies lessons. All of the comparisons would be useful to work on numeracy skills, as Smith states in his foreword.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Plot Summary:

This illustrated nonfiction book scales down to human scale incomprehensible objects and events. Large scale models or concepts such as sizes, numbers, time, events, and ideas are reduced to simple measurements or comparable human objects such as, water glasses, rulers, calendars, and sport balls. By doing so, unimaginable and enormous objects and events are easier to comprehend.

Critical Analysis:

Because this book is nonfiction and over one hundred websites were researched and used to write this book, it is accurate and authentic. Although there are no specific main characters, the people illustrated in the book are diverse and have different skin tones and hair colors. They also interact with one another regardless of their culture. Even though there is no specific setting, there is consistency when it comes to historical and contemporary time. This is seen in the pages discussing the events of the last 3,000 years, inventions through time, inventions of the last 1,000 years, and population in the last 3,000 years. To further add to this consistency, the characters illustrated in some pages accurately represent the people who lived in that specific time period. For example, the characters in the inventions through time section possess clothing that matches the clothing of that particular time period and culture. As for cultural details, there are not that many cultural markers. Some cultural details that are included in this book are brought out through factual statistics that are broken down by continents or countries and are at times used to either showcase the contributions people of these countries have made toward the progress of mankind or bring to light the physical and economic disparities that exist around the world. Consequently, these reliable estimates cause readers to reflect on their position in the world and further appreciate the universe and their blessings.

In regards to the illustrations in this book, the illustrations are colorfully appealing and the comparable objects are drawn in equal sections that are mathematically proportioned. Although some pages had illustrations of people being diverse in gender, age, skin tone, hair style, hair color, clothing, and facial features, I believe that there should have been more cultural markers or distinctions in regards to culturally-specific attire and ethnicity. Even though the illustrator could have included more cultural markers, I still recommend this illustrated nonfiction book because it provides a greater understanding of things that are difficult to imagine and leaves readers with a sense of astonishment.

Great book for curious kids!

The scaled thought exercises use ideas represented by familiar objects. A great resource for teachers to bring perspective to large concepts.

If presents abstract concepts of numbers, very confusing to children, in a concrete way of understanding data and information. Even adults will read this imaginative data-driven book and say "Wow! I didn't realize that!"

Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.