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Pebbles and the Biggest Number

by Joey Benun

This is a cute, educational story about a monarch butterfly on a quest to discover the largest number. In the process, he encounters a wide variety of wildlife, traveling through different biomes, until, at last, he discovers infinity via a Painted Lady.

Many early readers focus on numbers and counting, but this is one of the few I’ve seen to focus on such large measurement units. I think it is a good concept because I can recall having similar conversations with younger relatives and my friends’ kids. Everyone has met at least one child who just learned about infinity and is PSYCHED.

Not an inch of space is wasted on the page. Illustrations are clean and colorful and follow a concise sequence of events. Pebbles is detailed enough I could tell he was a monarch butterfly in a glance, but not-so photoreal that he loses his cuteness. The husky and eagle were stand-outs to me as far as appearance went.

Fun facts and science spots are provided to anticipate reader questions and build on acquired knowledge.

For instance, if Pebbles goes to the desert and discovers 27 million is the temperature of the sun, the fun facts go on to highlight the distance from the sun to earth, as well as to make sure the reader knows what a desert is, and knows how the number 1 million looks.

The story can be enjoyed with or without reading these, but their inclusion might make the book more engaging for adults who are reading the story to their child.

I would recommend this book to the parents of inquisitive early readers.