What's Big to a Tardigrade?
by Derik Wenman
illustrated by Lynn Fingarson
Date: 2021
Publisher: Derik Wenman
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book non-fiction
Pages: 30
Format: e-book
Source: library
A Little Story About Big Things
Some things are Big,
Some things are Small.
But what's Short to one,
To another seems Tall.
And one thing I know of, is bigger than them All...
Creatures of all different shapes and sizes are explored in this colourful telling of perspective ending with the biggest thing of them all.
(synopsis from Goodreads)
Well, that was disappointing.
I thought I was going to get a picture book all about tardigrades. Instead, I got a book about increasingly larger things, from flies and frogs to whales and spaceships, all related in a quasi-verse style that is probably supposed to rhyme but just feels clunky. I have no idea why the human child is purple, nor why a reference is made to "our moon base" in a non-fiction title. (Does the author know something the rest of us don't?)
The artwork is colourful, and the characters are kind of cute (aside from the inexplicably purple child). But it's not to scale; the tardigrade is introduced on a page where it's shown as being about the same size as a piece of seaweed... while simultaneously saying, "I'm invisible to the naked eye!"
This just doesn't work. I would say there are better tardigrade picture books out there, but, to be honest, I haven't come across any. That's why I was excited to find this one. Oh, well.
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 0/5
Overall: 1.33 out of 5
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