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2016 Nominee

If… A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas

Written by David J. Smith.
Published in 2014 by Kids Can Press.

David J. Smith created an endlessly intriguing guide to better understanding all those really big ideas and numbers children come across on a regular basis. Author David J. Smith has found clever devices to scale down everything from time lines (the history of Earth compressed into one year), to quantities (all the wealth in the world divided into one hundred coins), to size differences (the planets shown as different types of balls). Accompanying each description is a kid-friendly drawing by illustrator Steve Adams that visually reinforces the concept.

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13 thoughts on “If… A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas

  1. CNGS

    It was really informative and it showed information in other ways and it could be better if you made a “if all the countries in the world were there currency” type of information

  2. CNGS

    it has all the information that i never wondered about, epic and it could be for kids ages 5 and above because it is mega cool
    i’m a 9 year old named Ife

  3. Captin Nichola Goddard

    I really liked this book because it shows you the world from a different perspective. It shows you the world with “ifs” and those “ifs” gives you the feeling as “wow, woah, Thats a lot, that a little bit and I never knew that!!☺️

  4. St. Jerome

    I think this book is very good because I really liked how this book was full of facts that I never knew about.

  5. Captain Nichola Goddard School

    I really enjoyed this book. It shows people a different perspective of the world.

  6. Hillhurst Elementary school

    There are many interesting things about this author, he wants everybody to see things in a new way. He has written a lot of books from this perspective. It thought you to see things in a whole new way

  7. Hillhurst Elementary school

    There are many interesting things about this author, he wants everybody to see things in a new way. He has written a lot of books from this perspective. And I really enjoyed.

  8. Barnwell School

    I really liked this book, because it gives you a different view of the world and it was very well written.

  9. hillhurst school 7th avenue NW

    it was great and i think the author did a good job in explaining a normally boring topic for me it would be 5/9
    (much better than korean lego)
    #


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