Millions to Measure
Author: David M. Schwartz
Publisher: Harper Collins
Copyright: 2003
Pages: 28
Reading Level: Ages 5-12
Genre: Children’s Non Fiction
Rating: *****

Summary:
How did we decide what a foot was? A pound? Inches? In this book you get to follow from the beginning of time to the present how we came to have all the measurements we do. It starts off by taking the reader back in time to the prehistoric time where they had no idea how to measure distances and volume, size and weight. So someone decided they would use their feet to do height and distance, and stones for weight. But the problem was that everyone had different size feet and used different stones. You then travel forward in time and see Kings declaring that all measurements should be according to their feet, their cup, and their weight choice. After some time all people around the world come to agree on what one foot is. Which it shows is 12 inches. You then learn all about a ruler. You learn there are 5.280 feet in one mile, and that Mt. Everest is 5.5 miles high…so how many feet is that? 29,000! Then we learn about weight and volume. How at cup is, ounces, that there are two cups in one pint, two pints in a quart, and four quarts in a gallon! It even teaches about the metric system! It talks about liters, grams and more. It ends by letting explaining that many think the USA will eventually switch over to the metric system like the rest of the world, but whether they do or not doesn’t matter because we already learned all about it!

Who would benefit from reading this?
This book is great to teach any kid the standard measurements! Heck it was good for me! I had no idea how many feet were in a mile or that two cups equaled a pint and so on. A fun way to learn the basic math we use in our everyday life!

Potential problems/conflicts:
The only problem that I can think of is that there is A LOT to learn from this book. You might have to read it several times to get it all down.

My reaction:
I was surprised how great this book was. I would highly recommended it to parents to read to their children, and learn a thing for themselves as well. I know that I don’t know about pints and quarts, nor enough about the metric system. This book has a fun and laid back way of teach you all about math for the real world. They don’t teach this stuff in school, but kids need to know it. This book was even better than I expected. It covered everything, from measurements for height, distance, volume and more. A great book, I was surprised myself at how much I really didn’t know and how much I learned!