From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4?Leedy offers another winning math-concept book. Lisa has a homework assignment to measure something in as many ways as she can, using standard and nonstandard units. "Use your imagination!" is the last instruction the teacher gives the students. Lisa chooses her Boston terrier and the fun begins. She measures Penny and a variety of other dogs. In the process, readers learn that Penny's nose is one inch long. Her tail is one biscuit long. She is bigger than a pug, smaller than a cocker spaniel, and weighs about the same as a Shetland Sheepdog. Lisa measures how much her pet eats, how high she jumps, how much time it takes to care for her, how much money is invested in her, how fast Penny runs, and a variety of other doggie traits. The results are shared with readers through charts, graphs, and reports. Large, uncluttered earth-toned pastel acrylics create a pleasing look in this clever concept book. Readers have the opportunity to learn about measuring as well as glean a lot of information about keeping a canine. A great introduction to the subject, and one that tells a good story, too.?Jane Claes, T. J. Lee Elementary School, Irving, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 2^-4. With several successful informational picture books already to her credit, including
Mission Addition and
Postcards from Pluto (1993), Leedy turns her attention to a subject children frequently have difficulty understanding: measurement. In this creative introduction, she takes a look at various kinds of measurement (height, weight, volume, even time and temperature) and units of measure, presenting them as part of a scenario in which a young girl, Lisa, uses her dog, Penny, to help her complete her measuring assignment for class. Crisp, carefully captioned pictures, including many easy-to-grasp visual comparisons, spread across large-size pages, making the book easy to use with a small group. Leedy goes into the most detail about height and length, demonstrating, in the illustrations and through a chart, the relationship between inches, feet, and yards. She's more general with other measures, sticking largely to introducing units of measurement (for example, tablespoon, teaspoon, second, minute), and leaving the rest up to grown-ups to explain. One of the best parts of the book is her treatment of nonstandard units, which is both fun and informative: Penny's tail is one dog biscuit long, but it takes 10 biscuits to measure the tail of a greyhound. Leedy also introduces children to the more abstract concept of value: "We decided Penny is kind of expensive . . . but she's worth it," which adults can explain further in follow-up discussions. The book is perfect for classroom use, but it's also not much of a stretch to imagine children at home whipping out measuring devices and cornering their pets.
Stephanie Zvirin
