I’m Longer Than You! An Epic Contest of Measurement is a new (2025) and pleasant picture book. It is also useful and educational.
Author /illustrator Carolyn Fisher gives young readers accessible ways to think about the size of animals by a) having the animal themselves narrate the books, b) setting up clear and easy comparisons (such as between the dinosaur supersaurus and the great blue whale), c) providing analogies to multiple common items (buses, trees) to help sharpen understanding, d) having the supersaurus and the great blue whale engage in a very kid-like argument, and e) having an inchworm interrupt the argument–and then end up being a measuring judge of the length contest.
When the inchworm has to opt out (time for its cocoon), a centipede takes it place in measuring. This gives us f) a nicely quiet way to introduce different measurement lengths (inches vs. centimeters), which leads to a dragonfly to walk readers through the unit conversion. Why a dragonfly? Haven’t got a clue–that part seems arbitrary, and asking picture book readers to “multiple the inches by 2.54” to get the centimeter count seems unlikely to fit age group skills. (I don’t see kids who would like this book multiplying by decimals yet). But that’s my only quibble.
After hours of measurement and some math, the supersaurus and the great blue whale end up tied, and end up going for lunch together: an interesting resolution, one reinforced by how their words and bodies intertwine on the page.
The book starts by acknowledging the experts consulted, and ends with two educational pages sharing details on the animals and plants discussed in the book–and three more pages on measurement methods and units.
Again, pleasant, helpful, and useful.
