If: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers

Another classic book for kids of all ages from David Smith! When I was an elementary school teacher, I used "If the World Were a Village" and "If America Were a Village" to supplement my social studies and math lessons throughout the year. Now that I'm an at-home parent, I've read "IF" aloud at home and loaned it to my child's 5th grade teacher when her class was studying planets. My 2nd grader was dumbfounded by the idea of how little fresh water there is in the world, and he was able to relate it to a class discussion at school about water conservation. The Water and Energy pages made me think about my own consumption, as we're experiencing a historic drought here in the Southwest.

I bought this for my son's school library. The teachers love it and read it to the kids in their classes.

Beautiful illustrations, great way to relate impossibly massive numbers into comparative figures and every day items that are much easier to wrap one's mind around. Great book for 2nd or 3rd grade kids as mine are, and has content that is interesting for all ages.

This book inspired us to begin looking at other large things and how we could represent them pictorially! Great for anyone looking to talk about large numbers (or tiny ones) in a new way. Great for teachers who are exploring ratios with their students. Challenge them to make their own poster about something with huge numbers!

This is a book that both kids and grownups will love. Full of interesting ways of visualizing how our world is organized, and beautifully illustrated, it provokes both wonder and hard questions in readers of all ages, and challenges us to think anew about our world as it is. Want to change a child's perspective quickly (or even your old grumpy uncle's) without any preachy lectures? This is the book. Short, sweet, and the beginning of many great conversations.

Such a clever, fresh, and effective way of making complex relationships easy for children and adults to understand. My husband, the mathematician and engineer, was so impressed that he suggested we buy and donate copies of this book to our children's school libraries.

Enjoyed this book enough for/with my grandson that I bought a copy to use in my university teaching. Great illustration of alternative ways to share complex ideas and information.

My granddaughters like this book too. They are both home schooled so I thought this might be a book they could use in their studies.

A very good way of getting the scale of things over to children and adults too..... very enjoyable and educational for all.

Lovely book. Great stocking filler, birthday present. Full of interesting facts. Nice quality book. Something to keep by the bed to pick up for an interesting flick through.

Such a cute non fiction book gifted to my kid sister.

Great way to help everyone from kids to adults understand big concepts and ideas. The illustrations are gorgeous as well.

A really interesting book that will engage children by connecting big concepts in real terms for them.