Actual Size Special

Actual Size is certain to give you giant thrills

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I knew Actual Size was a winner within seconds of flipping through the pages. I first spotted it on the "staff recommended" shelf of Barnes & Noble. As regular readers of this column know, it doesn't matter that dozens of review copies arrive in the newsroom every day. Coulter Kirkpatrick, the features department editorial assistant, told me last week he would soon need a shovel if he wanted to get anywhere near my desk to leave memos or expense checks. Still, I cruise stores and libraries like a junkie to see what might not have made it to my mailbox. Dedication? Obsession? Who knows? That's another column. Anyway, my compulsion turned up Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin, $16; ages 5 and older).

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Special Special Brandy Hilboldt Allport is a writer for the Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla. You can reach her at brandy.allport@jacksonville.com or (904) 359-4378. Special

The concept is just so clever, fun and educational. What's not to love? Listen to the text from the first page, which speaks directly to readers: "Did you ever look a giant squid in the eye? Have you shaken hands with a gorilla or been face to face with a tiger? All of the animals in this book are shown at actual size, so you can see how you measure up to creatures both large and small."

Jenkins uses paper collages to render 18 creatures, so children can place their hands on the images to get a concrete idea about size. For instance, the palm of a 4-year-old would cover just one quadrant on a wing of the atlas moth. With its 12-inch wingspan, the atlas is often mistaken for a bird. A foldout page is only wide enough to show the jaw of a saltwater crocodile, the world's largest reptile (23 feet long). On a page with text that reads, "The word missing? DC. is too close to a great white shark" children can learn that the 6,000 pound creature has teeth that are 4 inches long.

An index at the end of the book offers more detailed information about all the creatures including a Goliath beetle, a dwarf goby fish, a Gippsland earthworm, a pygmy shrew and an Alaskan brown bear.

Not only does Actual Size have the "wow, cool" factor going for it, the book is a great place to start when your grade-schooler comes home and asks, "What should I write about for my science report?" Other titles by Jenkins are What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? and The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest.

--From the Tuesday, September 28, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle