Status
Available
Local notes
529 Jen
Collection
Genres
Publication
HMH Books for Young Readers (2017), Edition: Reprint, 40 pages
Description
"This non-fiction picture book explores time and how we think about it in a different way - as a series of events in the natural world (some of them directly observable, others not) that take place in a given unit of time. Steve Jenkins' extraordinary illustrations will accompany this engaging look at time. Just a Second is visualized as a linear series of illustrations and captions, starting with a second, a minute, an hour, a month, and a year. What happens in a second? A gnat beats its wings 1000 times. A hummingbird beats its wings 75 times. A shrew's heart beats 13 times. A bat squeaks and listens for an echo 10 times. A dropped stone falls 16 feet. Earth travels 18 miles in its trip around the sun. A cheetah can run 100 feet" --
Awards
Utah Beehive Book Award (Nominee — Informational Books — 2014)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Nominee — Nonfiction — 2014)
The Best Children's Books of the Year (Five to Nine — 2012)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
40 p.; 10 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member crfonten
This book is about time and what animals can do in a certain amount of time. The book goes through what animals can do in one second, one minute, one hour, and so on. This would be an interesting book to read to students to have them gain perspective of what really can happen in one second, or what
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takes one month to happen. Show Less
LibraryThing member Katina_DeBerry
Did you know that a rattlesnake can shakes its tail 60 times in one second? In Just a Second, Steve Jenkins educates readers on the many things that can occur during varied amounts of time. The book begins with examples of things that can happen within a second, and the spans of time increase as
This book was well written, and it included some very interesting information. I liked that the book wasn't just a collection of facts. Jenkins also provided background information about the measurement of time that was being discussed. For example, he explained that the second and minute are based on a Babylonian counting system. The cover is also very inviting. The picture of the bees flying across the cover and the font were engaging. My kids and I spent some time trying to guess how the bees would be mentioned in the book. The discussion about the cover really got them interested and excited about reading the book.
I would use this book in conjunction with a book like Rip Van Winkle, The Great Gatsby, or any text that dealt with time or the manipulation of time.
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the book progresses. Most of the examples referred to animals, but Jenkins also included items such as in one minute, an adult’s heart beats 70 times. At the end of the book, there is a history of the universe that provides a graphic that showed how the Earth was formed and how life has evolved. There is also an illustration that shows the Earth’s human population from 1750 to 2050, and a graph that shows the life spans of several different animals and plants. I would have found this graph to be more useful if humans were included in it. I read this book with my children, and they were curious about the life span of a human compared to a baobab tree or a hippopotamus. The very last page of the book is a history of timekeeping starting from 30,000 B.C.This book was well written, and it included some very interesting information. I liked that the book wasn't just a collection of facts. Jenkins also provided background information about the measurement of time that was being discussed. For example, he explained that the second and minute are based on a Babylonian counting system. The cover is also very inviting. The picture of the bees flying across the cover and the font were engaging. My kids and I spent some time trying to guess how the bees would be mentioned in the book. The discussion about the cover really got them interested and excited about reading the book.
I would use this book in conjunction with a book like Rip Van Winkle, The Great Gatsby, or any text that dealt with time or the manipulation of time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member sabdelaz
Just a second is a book that is like its subtitle, "A different way to look at time." In this creative book, this book was written within the context of science and some social studies. It was mainly a book of facts that are interesting to know about.
LibraryThing member amulve2
I enjoyed reading the book “Just a second” by Steve Jenkins. One aspect I liked was the plot. First the book talks about how many things can be done in one second. It then goes on to talk about how many things can be done in one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year, very
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quickly, or very long. The reader can look over each page and see how many things can be done in a particular minute, week or year. Seeing all of the things that can be done in one second can really intrigue the readers. “In one second...a cheetah sprinting flat out, a black mamba slithers a frightening 24 feet (7 meters), a dragonfly in flight cruises 50 feet (15 meters), a very fast human can run 39 feet (12 meters).” Another aspect I liked in this book was the illustrations. When the book changed to a different time elapse the background of the whole picture would change, such as when the book was explaining things that could happen in one second, the background was blue. When the book changed to things that could happen in one minute, the background was green. For each fact that was given about a particular object, there was a small picture that accompanied the words showing what that particular object looked like. The big idea of this story is that anything can happen in an amount of time, especially in a second. Show Less
LibraryThing member AmandaLK
More of an informational book. Shows what happens in a second, a minute, and hour, a day, and so on. Interesting for talking about time, but only reading parts at a time, or for students to read on their own; probably not a good read aloud book if you want to maintain interest. Drawings are
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interesting and semirealistic. Show Less
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Pages
40