Actual Size

Steve Jenkins (What Do You Do with a Tail Like This ?) returns with another inventive, involving picture book--this time inviting young readers to see how they measure up against a variety of different animals (represented in colorful, cut-paper collages at actual size). Each spread of Actual Size presents a new animal or two for readers to check out, along with a few interesting facts and physical dimensions. Some of the colorful collages display the entire animal at actual scale (like the fleshy, 36-inch length of a giant Gippsland earthworm)while others can only feature what fits on the page (an African elephant's foot, a Siberian tiger's face, or even just a gaping maw sporting a few four-inch-long teeth of a great white shark). Two fun fold-outs show a Goliath frog ("It's big enough to catch and eat birds and rats") and the long, toothy smile of a saltwater crocodile ("the world's largest reptile... a man-eater"). Jenkins' collages capture the texture and color of these cut-out creatures, and the thoughtful inclusion of an illustrated index shows each animal in its scaled-down entirety, accompanied by longer, fact-filled descriptions. While younger kids might not appreciate the subtlety of the book's clever "actual-size" trope, readers young and old will love all the close-up views and learn a few things along the way. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes