iF...

iF...A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers Written by David J. Smith * Illustrated by Steve Adams

The illustration on the cover swallowed my full attention, as an interesting painting on a gallery wall would. The book shares big ideas, big numbers, and even bigger concepts of scale- in a way that makes incredible sense. The information is engaging and relevant, and the collaboration between visual and text will capture the attention of a variety of audiences.

"If all the water on Earth were represented in a 100 glasses...97 of the glasses would be filled with salt water from the oceans and some lakes. 3 of the glasses would be fresh water."  Facts such as that are supplemented with additional insight..."One of the glasses would represent all the fresh water available to us. The rest of the fresh water is locked up in glaciers, frozen in the atmosphere or inaccessible deep underground."

This is the type of book that you need to revisit, because you have to think about the concepts, and each time you read the same page, you have something else to question. This book is fun to read and gives the reader much to ponder. A clearer understanding of the world will be a welcomed aftermath with each and every iF.

A bonus additional text feature is the side bars with deeper information. The topics of life spans, food supplies, and distance to space are some of the challenging concepts presented in manageable scales to grapple with. Teachers will find 101 ways to integrate this into their STEAM (Science,Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) curriculum, and I predict their students will give this mentor text 5 stars!