What's Older Than a Giant Tortoise?

Wells of Knowledge Science

by Robert E. Wells, Kathy Tucker (Illustrator)

If medals were awarded to animals for living a long time, then a giant tortoise would certainly win one. Some giant tortoises have lived for more than 150 years! Still, there are things on this planet much older than giant tortoises. Some of the giant sequoia trees that grow in California would be more than 3,000 years old. But the trees aren't that old compared to the Barringer Crater in Arizona―that was made about 49,000 years ago. And it's almost impossible to imagine that 65 million years ago, the T. Rex dinosaur roamed this planet―but we have the skeletons to prove it!

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

About Robert Wells
Robert E. Wells is the author and illustrator of many intriguing and award-winning science books for children. He lives with his wife in Wenatchee, Washington.


Welcome Robert E. Wells’s books into your classroom, and you’ll find most of
your science curriculum covered. The twelve volumes – engaging and informative,
educational and inviting – provide second through fifth graders with lessons in
science and math from astronomy to weather; from biology to measurement.
Beyond the solid information that is the core of each book, Wells also introduces
concepts that offer students deeper understanding of the subjects at hand. His
conversational tone and thought-provoking questions will lead children to questions
of their own. And that is the beginning of all scientific learning.

Reviews

[Lauren Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about time, and the relative "oldness" of things compared to other things. It begins with a tortious, the oldest living mammal known to man, and travels around the world and space. It relates a Sequoia tree to craters to pyramids to mammoth fossils to Mount Everest to dinosaur to Earth. It uses fun illustrations to travel the reader through here to show the relativeness of time. At the end it shows a timeline of everything discussed.

The main theme is time, and the extreme relativeness of it compared to what you are observing.

I think this book is amazing, taking a hard conceptual concept and making it easy to follow.

I would recommend this book to teachers who teach science to younger children. The illustrations make it fun, and the way the book is written can be made highly interactive. It also is a good segway into the topic of time, especially lots of it.

[Jennifer Lanman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book on tortoises. It talks about how old they may be but many things are a lot older then them. it gives you a good lesson on science, including dinosaurs, trees, mountains, meteor craters etc. Many pictures flipped to the vertical view so that can keep the students engaged. There was not a lot of words and the pictures told the story. The illustrations also give facts about what it is talking about for example, the tree they show how tall it gets and how wide. This can be used in a k-2nd grade classroom. In the back of the book it shows the time line of how everything ties in with its age. Showing the tortoise being the youngest out of all the topics discussed. You can use this in the class room as a read aloud. After you read the book you can do an activity that works with time lines. You show them the example used in the book then group them up into groups of 4 or 5. Everyone in the groups have to work together to make a mini time line of everyones birthdays from youngest-oldest. Then the groups will come back together as a class, and as a whole class they have to make one big timeline on the board fitting in everyones birthday. It will make them problem solve, think and also work together to create a timeline.

[Tracy Strahsburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very unique, to me, nonfiction book for children. This book doesn’t necessarily have a specific topic other than the age of “things”. It begins by telling the reader that a giant tortoise can live up to 150 years. Now that the reader is thinking that is old the author then compares it to sequoia trees, the pyramids of Egypt, mammoth and dinosaurs, and our galaxy ensuring that each is older than the previous. Although the ages of some of these items begin to grow to numbers too large to fathom, it is still unique in that it gets the reader thinking about the world around them and the ever changing, and according to this book not changing, world that we live in!

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short, comparative look at how truly old our planet and universe are, looking at the various ages of living things, the pyramids, craters, and fossils along the way. It's an interesting tale and is short enough to keep young children's attention. Our girls especially liked the illustrations.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read at just the right level for. Four year old. The hardest thing it to understand the concept of how old is millions of year old verses hundreds of thousands verse a few hundred. But I think that's something kids grasp over time with exposure to big numbers.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I didn't like this book. I couldn't figure out why it was comparing something living with nonliving "objects". As I put it into perspective, especially with the last couple of pages, it hit the purpose for the book.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this scientific book that starts small and then expands. What a treat way to get kids interested in scientific investigation.

[Margaret Chind · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an "old earth" measurement book full of details of one thing after another and it's estimated age. I love these illustrations and the Wells Knowledge of Science series.

Thanks to AW.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is an absolute favorite in our home. Robert Wells makes topics so understandable for kids and presents them in a fun way.

[Beyond the Pages with Eva K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one!