How Big Is Big?

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

The editor describes How Big Is Big? as a trip through the “worlds”
(read “concepts”) of size, weight, color, and touch. A child’s
trip. And the children’s guide is a whimsical bug with a magnifying
glass. His information comes in two forms: comical, rhyming images in
child-centred language, and short paragraphs of informative data set off
in smaller type against a yellow patch with jagged edges.

“How Deep is Deep?” illustrates the rhymes: “How deep is deep? /
No, I don’t mean deep sleep, / And I don’t mean a well, / or a deep
prison cell; / But rather imagine the fishies’ commotion / if a kid
ever walked / on the bottom of the ocean.” “Pacific Ocean is 36,201
feet (11,034 metres) deep.”

The illustrations by The Fernandes Four are from four members of
talented family who, collectively, have illustrated more than 20
children’s books. Their vividly colored scenes, sometimes tender and
sometimes grotesque, vibrate with humor, whimsy, melodrama, and fantasy.
The one for “How Deep Is Deep?” shows a page full of brightly
colored fishes with varying expressions and one very small boy in a
corner.

How Big Is Big? serves as an excellent introduction to weights and
measures. The bouncy rhymes make the rather sophisticated concepts not
only comprehensible but fun. Highly recommended.