Measuring Up: How Oliver Smoot Became a Standard Unit of Measurement
$40.11
- Hardcover
32 pages
- Release Date
23 September 2025
Summary
Could you be the next smoot? One MIT student’s diminutive height becomes his mathematical superpower—and claim to fame—in a true story that’s entertaining and inspiring in equal measure.
When the five-foot-seven-inch Oliver Smoot and his friends at MIT decided to play a practical joke, he drew the short straw—and was selected to be the measurement device to carry it out. The task? Measuring the length of a bridge, one lying-down Oliver Smoot at a time. Author Jenny La…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781536230123 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 153623012X |
| Author: | Jenny Lacika, Anna Bron |
| Publisher: | Candlewick Press,U.S. |
| Imprint: | MIT Kids Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 32 |
| Release Date: | 23 September 2025 |
| Weight: | 374g |
| Dimensions: | 269mm x 225mm x 10mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
The text is presented in a clear, straightforward fashion, while illustrations smartly evoke 1950s style.—School Library JournalLacika stretches an amusing anecdote about the origin of the “smoot” as a unit of measurement into a picture book–length story, while Bron’s quiet, methodical illustrations incorporate numerical symbols, use the bridge design as a type of ruler and frame, and have some fun with perspective… .—Kirkus ReviewsThe colorful digital illustrations signal a historical setting and amusingly incorporate mathematical symbols… .Engaging….—The Horn Book
About The Author
Jenny Lacika
Jenny Lacika is a graduate of MIT and author of the Mathical Award winner Again, Essie?, illustrated by Teresa Martínez. As a student, she crossed the bridge between Boston and Cambridge countless times. She measures about 0.96 smoots in height and now lives more than 2 million smoots away from the bridge, in New Mexico.
Anna Bron is the illustrator of The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape by Amy Alznauer, No Horses in the House! by Mireille Messier, and the Salma series by Danny Ramadan. She is also an animation director who has worked on Emmy- and Oscar-nominated projects, including short films and commercials. Anna Bron lives in Canada.
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