Friday, February 27, 2015

Day 14: How Big is a Million? (Patterns)

The Valentine Vision:
Read, Study, and Share
14 picture books in 14 days



Welcome to DAY 14. Today's lesson is on...

How Big is a Million?
by Anna Milbourne
Title: How Big is a Million?
Author: Anna Milbourne
Illustrator: Serena Riglietti
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd.
Year: 2007
Word Count: 565
Top 10 Element: Patterns

Summary:
Little Pipkin wonders how big things are. He goes on an adventure to find one million of something. 
We have the pattern of questions and answers. We have the pattern of threes. And we have the pattern of counting. As well as repetition.

  1. How wide is the sea?
  2. How high is the sky?
  3. Is the moon made of cheese?
But the thing he wanted to know most of all was...how big is a million?
He counts his fish at breakfast...TEN.
"Ten's a big number of fish for breakfast," he said."But if ten's this big, how big is a million?"
To which, his mother replies, "A million's much, much more than ten." So off Pipkin goes.
He finds 100 penguins, and asks them,
"If a hundred's this big, how big is a million?" And they say, "A million's much, much bigger than a hundred."
They ask if he would like to stay and huddle to get toasty-warm, but he continues on his search.
Then he runs into a seal cub and they see a thousand snowflakes. He stays to play for a bit, but then continues on his search.



He goes back home disappointed that "he hadn't found a million of anything at all."

A pattern of 3 at the end again, because it really repeats the structure of the whole book:
  • TEN yummy fish, 
  • a HUNDRED warm penguins, 
  • a THOUSAND pretty snowflakes, and a brand new friend,
Then Mama says, "Here's your million, my little Pip. You can make a wish on every single one." And there's a little sign in the lower right hand corner of the page that says, "This way to see Pipkin's million" and you see... him and his mama looking at this...

This is actually the poster that came with the book, but the end papers are also covered with a million stars. My kids and I figured out that 1 million is a 10,000 sets of 100. OR 1,000 sets of 1,000. Wow.

Do you think one day we'll have a million books featured in PB 14:14? Great job everyone! Come back tomorrow to find out who will become the prize winners. And I'll update the book LIST soon too!

Anybody want to take a GUESS as to which element was featured the most this year? Last year, it was CHARACTER. I'm guessing, yes guessing (haven't tallied yet) that this year's will be either character or theme. What do you think?

Here's the link to add your own DAY 14 blog posts...

17 comments:

  1. Cute! Reminds me of How Much Is A Million, which stuck with me from when I read it as a kid. And my money's on theme or word play.
    Thanks for putting on this challenge, Christie! I'm very glad I did it.

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  2. Such fun! Yes, Laura Boffa, I was immediately thinking of How Much is a Million too. That book made a big impression on me.

    Thanks for hosting this challenge, Christie! It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the process and reading everyone's posts. I put together a compilation post for tomorrow with all 12 of mine. My doubles up were rhyme and pattern, but I'm voting for dialogue as the overall winner.

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  3. Christie, Thank you for creating the PB 14:14 Challenge. Each day I looked forward to blog hopping. And there's so much a writer can gain by simply typing the texts of published picture books. Take care. :)

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  4. Cute book, reminds me of HOW MUCH IS A MILLION by David Schwartz.
    As for your prediction, it seems I've been reading a lot about PLOT and PATTERNS, or maybe that's just what I seem to focus on in my studies. :) Thanks for a great 14 days Christie!

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  5. This has been a great challenge, Christie...both as a blogger and as a picture book writer!
    I love your pick for today...my grandson asks questions about numbers all the time...he wants to know how much a googolplex is. ;)

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  6. YES, this has been a great challenge. Love this little book, by the way, and since granddaughter is into numbers really big now, I need to find this book. Good example too of Pattern.
    As for which element has been most featured? Hmmm...I'm not counting, but just from a sense of revisiting everyone's posts and searching for non-participant commenters, I'll take a guess: Dialogue. Am I right?

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  7. Love the penguins! Cute way to look at math and numbers and the joy of finding out what a million is!

    YAY...we did it! Thank you so much Christie for hosting this challenge! I think word play or rhyme will be the most...

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  8. the penguin book is adorable.

    Thanks so much for this challenge. We have very few picture books in English at our local library. This forced me to take the train to the city to find some newer books. I discovered that the new library there has tons of picture books in English. I had so much fun reading them and taking part in this challenge. Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Wow, way to persevere even though your local library selection was so limited! There should be a picture book about your adventures to overcome obstacles and participate in the challenge. :)

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  9. Thanks so much, everyone! I'm glad you all had such a wonderful time and learned a lot too.

    I may not get Saturday's post up until the evening because I am sick and will get to it as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Winners WILL be announced soon. Have a good day and come back soon.

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  10. Fun learning challenge! I've read them while at work. I am guessing character again. That never gets old.

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  11. Thanks again for this great learning experience, Christie! I put together a summary post of all 10 elements and my 12 posts. I added to the Day 14 linky, because I thought others might like to see it, but feel free to remove it if it doesn't fit (since my Day 14 post is already up there).

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  12. It was a great challenge Christie! Thanks so much for hosting! I'm sorry to hear that you are under the weather. That is never any fun! I really hope you are feeling better soon.

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  13. Katie, I am including your link here. Thanks so much for the great recap. RECAP HERE on Katie's Logonaut site.

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  14. Christie, I followed along but I'm just not getting around to commenting. :) Thanks for the great event and lots of learning!

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