How Long or How Wide?: A Measuring Guide (Math is Categorical)

Introduce young readers to the concept of measurement with picture books and informational titles that go the distance.

Children love to size up the world around them. Although they are quick to figure out that a favorite toy ends at 10 on a ruler, they need guidance in learning what makes an inch, a foot, or a yard and how these units from our customary system compare to the metric system. This annotated bibliography offers not only books that introduce the concept of measurement and the need for standard measurements but also books about such innovative measurers as Eratosthenes, who measure the circumference of the Earth in the third century BCE, and Fannie Farmer, who invented modern recipes with exact measurements, as well as books that simply make measuring fun. A special sidebar, "Size Matters," features books that allow children to observe size comparisons and realize the importance of measurement, from the smaller particles to the biggest dinosaurs.

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Informational Books

How Long or How Wide? A Measuring Guide. By Brian P. Cleary. Illus. by Brian Gable. 2007. 32p. Millbrook, paper, $6.95 (9781580138444); lib. ed., $15.95 (9780822566946). 530.8. Gr. 1-4.

Similar to Cleary's other Math Is CATegorical titles, bouncy thymes and jovial cartoon cats humorously introduce the concept of measuring length. The author begins with the inch, foot, and yard and relates them to the metric system's millimeter, centimeter, decimeter, and meter. Concluding charts and size comparisons provide a good recap. The series also presents the concept of weight with On the Scale, a Weighty Tale (2008).
—Book Links

— "Other Print" (6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM)