Mathical Measurement: Nicola Kent

Measurement is a big topic for children. It’s about making sense of the world around us. This month, Mathical Books coordinator Kirsten Bohl interviews four Mathical authors about measurement, asking them five questions to explore their writing process.

Read the interviews:
Lalena Fisher – Nicola Kent – Rilla Alexander – Mike Downs

1. Measurement + emotion is not an equation many adults consciously resonate with — but children often do. Can you say more about how emotions show up in your book?

Nicola Kent: The aim of Measuring Me! is to ignite the natural curiosity and humour that young children bring to the world, and harness those qualities to tackle a subject that can, in an educational context, sometimes become the very opposite — humourless and a bit boring for many kids. I am a great believer in the importance of humour and playfulness in learning at all ages, and of using small stories to bring warmth, emotion and humanity to abstract facts. So for example, the spread in which a girl is wearing a skeleton costume is immediately telling a story through the pictures. We learn that the smallest bone in our body is the stapes in the ear – the size of a flea – and the biggest is our thigh bone – the height of a cat. The emotions of the spread come from the relationship of warmth and love between the girl and the cat, excitement that it’s Halloween, and humour in the costume and the cheeky flea jumping away. 

2. How did you decide to write — and draw — about measurement?

I feel quite strongly that education systems sometimes expect young children to learn quite abstract concepts in maths and for many these can feel a bit alienating. When you’re very young, a fact about a centimetre for example can seem pretty irrelevant and boring and even a bit scary if you don’t understand the point of the measuring in the first place. So I wanted to make a book that introduced young children to concepts of measurement and scale in a playful, accessible and familiar but also awe inspiring way. They can learn about conventions of measurement and scale later down the line, but it’s great first to get a sense of why we would be interested in the first place. The book focusing on the child’s own body makes the facts even more exciting – facts you might want to repeat to a friend.

3. Please share one especially surprising fact you learned while making the book.

I found many really extraordinary facts about the human body while researching Measuring Me!, but the most extraordinary was that, if a five-year-old’s blood vessels were all unraveled they would stretch almost three times around the world! We really are amazing!

4. Mathical books often have a theme of self-empowerment among children. We want children to learn to love & enjoy math, being mathy and doing math & experiencing their world as knowable, changeable, and worthwhile to play in. Can you say more about how the child / children in your story are “in charge” of their own story?

Young children’s worlds are very small, mostly confined to home and kindergarten, so I wanted to create a visual universe in Measuring Me! that was rooted in the domestic setting – for example using tin cans and other kitchen objects, and children’s toys for example. Later in the book I include stars and the planet, but mostly I am sticking to very homely units of measurement. By using the familiar to explore extraordinary facts, and showing children’s everyday lives at play in this context, I hope the book empowers them to feel they have agency in learning about maths and human biology.

5. Anything else you’d like to share?

An important aspect of the cast of characters in Measuring Me! is its inclusivity. I feel strongly children’s books should represent diversity. For example, here I include a child with a tracheostomy (something I also have) and a child with a walking frame, though this has nothing to do with the facts or the focus of the book. Measuring Me! is partly about collective pride in how amazing we are, and it’s crucial that every child is allowed to feel that.