Title: Actual Size
Author/Illustrator: Steve Jenkins
Reviewer: Jordana Horn Marinoff

My 21 month old son may become a zoologist because of this book.

Actual Size is a very clever book which, with each page, illustrates various animals or animal parts at their...you guessed it!...actual size. You can see a gorilla's hand, an atlas moth, a shark's tooth, etc. Each page has a line or two of text which makes the book genuinely interesting for parents and kids to read together.

The illustrations are made from cut-out paper (think Frederick by Leo
Lionni) and are quite good. I learn something new each time I read this book (something I can't really say about The Very Hungry Caterpillar...except, damn, that guy is hungry!). Plus, there is nothing quite like your kid pointing to a picture of a small fish and yelling, "dwarf goby!"