Actual Size: A Captivating Animal Picture Book of Real-Life Measurement and Nature Facts

I read this to my kid’s first-grade class. They loved every second of it. It took 40 minutes to get through it…so many fantastic questions from them! I did choose to skip some of the text in the back so nothing was too scary for them, but they had no idea. This book made for a really great experience!

My grand daughter loves this book. I have recommended it to all the grandmothers I work with.

My son nearly 3 year old son recently discovered this book in the public library. After the first reading he fell in love with it. After renewing it 3 times, we knew we had to purchase it. It is his go to bed time book, snuggling book, anytime book! He loves that he can put his hand up to the gorilla hand and compare, and see that they have 5 fingers just like him. He also loves "This is too close to a great white shark!" After he came inside from playing yesterday he said he saw a big spider. I saw oh yeah, how big was it? He said casually, "It was a goliath bird-eater tarantula." Not too shabby for an almost 3 year old! It has really sparked his interest in animals and even in measuring to see what is bigger and smaller- comparing and contrasting! We have also gotten some other books by the same author, but this one is by far his favorite!

I was shocked to see how cute this book is. It is a very simple book with illustrations that show you how big things are in real life. I was shocked to see the size of some things and learned some things myself!

Steve Jenkins's writing and art are engaging and interesting. Although this is geared for younger children, I used it with my 4th grade tutee who is dyslexic, and he can still enjoy the information without feeling babied. Great way to introduce informational texts and the sciences to younger children. I recommend Steve Jenkins--check out his other books too!!

Great pictures and awesome story

Super cool book BUT beware the back cover is an image of the bird eating tarantula (also appears in the book.) As someone with an intense phobia of spiders I did not appreciate opening the amazon box to see that staring up at me and seriously wish a different image had been chosen for the back. Would make a very cool gift for anyone who is NOT terrified of spiders. Was going to give to my toddler for Christmas but will likely be returning because I don't want to chance it becoming his favorite book. I think he's also too young to fully understand the partial images of animals. My husband loved it.

Decided on this purchase primarily by customer reviews. I have been reading this to my daughter before she could talk and it's a favorite. She is now 3 years old and frequently chooses this book at story time. This book is surprisingly a keeper.