HOW BIG IS A MILLION?
Author: Anna Milbourne
Illustrator: Serena Riglietti
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Number of pages: 27
Publisher: Usborne Publishing (UK) First published in: 2007 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Pipkin the Penguin) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
This is a brand new picture book to help children understand the concept of big numbers. Pipkin the smallest penguin is always asking questions, but what he wants to know most of all is how big is a million? So he sets off to find out, and along the way meets a hundred penguins, sees a thousand snowflakes and meets one new friend before being amazed to finally find out how big a million really is. A special fold-out poster at the end of the book shows Pipkin looking at the sky, which is printed with exactly one million stars. It is gorgeously illustrated by Serena Riglietti. |
“"I found TEN yummy fish, a HUNDRED warm penguins, a THOUSAND pretty snowflakes, and a brand new friend. But I couldn't find a million, however hard I tried."”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Anna Milbourne's ‘How Big is a Million?’ (2007) is a wonderful book to introduce the concepts of large numbers and place value to young children. The story follows Pipkin the Penguin who wants to discover how big a million really is. Throughout the story, Pipkin gets to see how big ten, a hundred, and a thousand are, but returns home disappointed as a million is nowhere to be found, until his Mama finds a perfect way to show Pipkin how big a million really is. Illustrations by Serena Riglietti are super cute, and the visual representation of numbers ten, a hundred, a thousand and a million are accurate. It is evident that the author, illustrator, the designer, and the publisher took a great deal of care to ensure the mathematical accuracy, particularly of the one million stars on the enclosed poster! One way that could help to make this book an even more amazing tool to teach young children the concepts of large numbers and place value is to find a way to embed in the story three other numbers: one, ten thousand and one hundred thousand, in order to give children a sense of number progression. Currently, the sequence jumps from ten, a hundred, and a thousand to suddenly a million. In terms of diversity of the characters: Pipkin the Penguin, the main character, is a male character, so are secondary characters, such as the seal. Having more female characters (with dialogue) beyond the Mama character would help to achieve gender balance in mathematical stories. All in all, we highly recommend ‘How Big is a Million?’. Recommended for children aged 6+ years old.
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Large numbers; Place value
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
Anna Milbourne's ‘How Big is a Million?’ (2007) is a wonderful book to introduce the concepts of large numbers and place value to young children. The story follows Pipkin the Penguin who wants to discover how big a million really is. Throughout the story, Pipkin gets to see how big ten, a hundred, and a thousand are, but returns home disappointed as a million is nowhere to be found, until his Mama finds a perfect way to show Pipkin how big a million really is. Illustrations by Serena Riglietti are super cute, and the visual representation of numbers ten, a hundred, a thousand and a million are accurate. It is evident that the author, illustrator, the designer, and the publisher took a great deal of care to ensure the mathematical accuracy, particularly of the one million stars on the enclosed poster! One way that could help to make this book an even more amazing tool to teach young children the concepts of large numbers and place value is to find a way to embed in the story three other numbers: one, ten thousand and one hundred thousand, in order to give children a sense of number progression. Currently, the sequence jumps from ten, a hundred, and a thousand to suddenly a million. In terms of diversity of the characters: Pipkin the Penguin, the main character, is a male character, so are secondary characters, such as the seal. Having more female characters (with dialogue) beyond the Mama character would help to achieve gender balance in mathematical stories. All in all, we highly recommend ‘How Big is a Million?’. Recommended for children aged 6+ years old.
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Large numbers; Place value
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
