Prehistoric Actual Size

            I am beginning to think that Steve Jenkins might actually be a genius.  Many of you may know some of his other works, like How to Clean a Hippopotamus, What do you do With a Tail Like This?, and What do you do When Someone Tries to Eat You?  His book Actual Size won over critics and audiences alike, but I want to examine his sequel, Prehistoric Actual Size.  The idea is brilliant—take a book that is 12.4 by 10.3 inches and somehow convey to readers the smallest prehistoric creatures and the largest all in the same book.

            Steve Jenkins takes a chronological journey through prehistoric times. He begins with a protozoan, which was “almost too small to see.”  This protozoan is nothing but a spot on the page.  Bleeding onto the protozoan page and its opposite is a sea scorpion, an animal that I would definitely not like to be next to.  The sea scorpion lived 420 million years ago and was six and a half feet long.  For all of the animals in the book, Steve Jenkins gives a sentence about the animals and lets you know how long ago it lived and some aspect of its physical appearance.  I loved that on one page Jenkins shows a shark that was alone three inches long directly facing a three foot long amphibian.  I think the juxtaposition between the small and the large animals really works in Jenkins’ favor.  The animals he shows are interesting and scary, and sometimes both, like the six and a half foot long millipede that takes up two pages. 

Obviously, the very large animals are not shown in full, but Jenkins displays the magnitude of these creatures by showing certain parts.  Jenkins shows the claw of the Baryonyx, which is almost a foot long by itself.  I think in English, this is called synecdoche, where a part is used to represent the whole.  For the Baryonyx, this creature was over thirty-three feet long, and I can imagine this because of how huge the claw is that I see.  The drawings are the star of the show, so Jenkins only gives simple sentences about the animals.  In the back, Jenkins offers more information on the animals.  My favorite thing that he does, however, is explain the nature of science to the kids in ways they can understand.  He lets readers know that scientists don’t know for sure what animals look like, but that we can take guesses based on the evidence that they find through fossils and things.

            Steve Jenkins books are just fun.  I think that they are both fantastic to read out loud and for students to read independently.  He gives readers a pronunciation guide for the dinosaurs, but teachers will have to show readers how to use these.  I feel like this is one of those books that students will return to again and again.  Students will pick up little bits of information about prehistoric times and go to teachers, parents, and friends and say things like “did you know that there used to be a six foot millipede?”  I think this book should be a staple in libraries, classrooms, and homes.  Steve Jenkins does have a website that I feel is fairly child-friendly.  When you Google Steven Jenkins’ name, however, be careful!  There are a bunch of Steve Jenkins on the internet and you do not want your students to look at the wrong things!

            Interestingly enough, you can buy this book for your Kindle.  Our cohort has discussed Kindles, and there seems to be an almost even divide between avid supporters and those, like myself, who thinks that Kindles, Nooks, and all other Ereaders steal part of the reading experience away.  I’m only mentioning this because this book is available through Amazon on the Kindle.  Now I will pose a question.  Why would you get this book off of a Kindle?  The beauty of this book is that all the pictures are the size of the animal part being displayed.  How does the Kindle even handle gatefolds?  The hardcover version of this book is $10.88 from Amazon, while the Kindle version is $9.99.  What are you losing by saving a dollar?