Children's Literature: Size

How big is a crocodile? What about a tiger, or the world’s largest spider? Can you imagine a tongue that is two feet long or an eye that’s bigger than your head? Sometimes facts and figures don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes you need to see things for yourself—at their actual size.

Each spread of Big and Little shows animals that are related to each other but vary greatly in size. All animals are illustrated on the same scale, so readers can compare them throughout the book.

Billy and his parents discuss how big he is getting.

Compares the sizes of animals, insects, vehicles, mountains, and planets, using pictures and text.

Interesting facts about some of the world's biggest things.

Illustrates the concept of big, bigger, and biggest by comparing the physical measurements of such large things as a blue whale, a mountain, a star, and the universe.

A cat and mouse chase demonstrates such concepts as deep and shallow, scary and scared, and beginning and end.

Photographs of animals and objects in larger and smaller sizes suggest comparisons between the two.

Illustrations and brief text introduce colors and the concepts of shape and size.

Cut paper images introduce children to color, form, and design as they explore tall giraffes and short mice, squares and circles, light day and dark night.

Titch feels left out because he is so much smaller than his brother and sister until he gets a little seed that grows bigger than anything they have.

Two fuzzy creatures can't agree on who is small and who is big, until a couple of surprise guests show up, settling it once and for all!