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In this educational children’s book, a butterfly named Pebbles sets out to find the biggest number. He flies through various habitats, including a jungle, a desert, and the ocean. In each location, he meets different animals who tell him about themselves, their environments, and the biggest number they know. With each new location, Pebbles learns about orders of magnitude going all the way up to nonillion—with mentions of googols and googolplexes—until he discovers the concept of infinity.
Explaining the enormity of such huge numbers to anyone could be a daunting task, but this book breaks down complicated ideas into smaller, more understandable units of information. Children who may struggle to picture a trillion can wrap their heads more easily around the number after learning from Pebbles’ jungle friends that there are trillions of trees and trillions of fish on earth. As Pebbles learns each new number, a “number note” shows the numeral so that readers can count the increasing amount of zeros. A helpful comparative guide at the end of the book shows what each number would look like in terms of grains of sand. The end matter also features a glossary with definitions and cute asides from various characters.
Pebbles’ story is a simple quest for numbers, but as he travels through different parts of the world, the text introduces scientific concepts as well. Sidebars and callout boxes give information about the creatures and ecosystems on each page. These additional science and math facts do not interfere with the plot, thanks to the book’s bright, cheerful illustrations of Pebbles’ adventures. This book simplifies complicated mathematical concepts and makes learning about them fun.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review