Wells, Robert E.

Personal

Married; wife's name Karen; children: Kim, Jeffrey; Kurt (stepson).

Addresses

Home—WA.

Career

Author and illustrator of children's books.

Awards, Honors

Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children designation, Children's Book Council (CBC)/National Science Teachers Association, 1996, for What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew?; Children's Choice selection, CBC/ International Reading Association, 1998, for What's Faster than a Speeding Cheetah?; Gold Seal Award, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, 2000, for Can You Count to a Googol?; Gold Seal Award, 2003, for How Do You Know What Time It Is?

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1993.

What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1995.

How Do You Lift a Lion?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1996.

What's Faster than a Speeding Cheetah?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 1997.

Can You Count to a Googol?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2000.

How Do You Know What Time It Is?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2002.

What's Older than a Giant Tortoise?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2004.

Did a Dinosaur Drink This Water?, Albert Whitman (Morton Grove, IL), 2006.

Several of Well's books have been published in Spanish translation.

Sidelights

Robert E. Wells, the author and illustrator of a number of well-regarded nonfiction picture books for children, made his literary debut with Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? In the 1993 work, Wells "delivers a healthy, age-appropriate jolt to common assumptions about proportion and numbers," observed a Publishers Weekly contributor. Beginning with a comparison of a blue whale to an elephant, Wells illustrates the relative sizes of Mount Everest, Earth, the sun, and other celestial bodies. According to Carolyn Phelan in Booklist, the book's strength is "making the inconceivable more imaginable through original, concrete images," such as a drawing of a crate of sun-sized oranges dwarfed by the red supergiant star Antares.

In a related work, What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew?, Wells looks at the infinitesimal, contrasting the tiny pygmy shrew with a ladybug and continuing with paramecium, bacteria, molecules, and atoms. The author's

"lighthearted treatment is fine for the familiar," remarked School Library Journal critic Frances E. Millhouser, although the reviewer noted that younger readers might be confused by Wells' description of single-celled organisms. Phelan stated, however, that the author "introduces a challenging concept in a way that will entertain and intrigue" his audience.

Wells examines simple machines in How Do You Lift a Lion? Here his illustrations depict children using levers, wheels, and pulleys to raise a lion off the ground, haul a panda, and transport bananas to a group of hungry baboons. In What's Faster than a Speeding Cheetah? he explores the swiftness of a falcon, the rapidness of a jet plane, and the acceleration of a meteoroid. "Always in sync with the way children think, Wells takes each concept and makes it concrete, vivid, and understandable," Phelan commented.

The number system is the focus of Can You Count to a Googol? Wells creates humorous drawings, including a band of ice-cream-loving penguins, as well as more-realistic depictions of dollar bills to show how numbers increase exponentially. Ultimately, he explains a googol, represented by the number one followed by one hundred zeros. "The switch from fanciful to factual in these examples is somewhat jarring," remarked School Library Journal critic Adele Greenlee, "but the pen-and-acrylic cartoons do adequately illustrate the growing numbers." Phelan offered a more positive assessment of the title, stating that Can You Count to a Googol? "encourages young children to stretch their minds a bit."

In How Do You Know What Time It Is?, Wells offers "a succinct, child-friendly history of how time came to be measured," wrote Wanda Meyers-Hines in School Library Journal. Among the devices the author considers are the sundial, the pendulum, and the atomic clock. According to Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman, Wells's "picture-book format … roots the concepts in daily experience." The author takes readers on a trip through time in What's Older than a Giant Tortoise? In his exploration of a sequoia tree, the pyramids, and fossilized mammoths, Wells "manages to boggle the mind in a way that is stimulating rather than confusing," Phelan stated. In Did a Dinosaur Drink This Water? Wells examines Earth's water cycle in a "simple text [that] asks good questions and offers clearly worded answers," as Phelan observed.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 1993, Carolyn Phelan, review of Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?, p. 759; August, 1995, Carolyn Phelan, review of What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew?, p. 1953; October 1, 1997, Carolyn Phelan, review of What's Faster than a Speeding Cheetah?, p. 335; March 1, 2000, Carolyn Phelan, review of Can You Count to a Googol?, p. 1249; December 1, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of How Do You Know What Time It Is?, p. 686; October 15, 2004, Carolyn Phelan, review of What's Older than a Giant Tortoise?, p. 409; December 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Did a Dinosaur Drink This Water?, p. 63.

Publishers Weekly, October 11, 1993, review of Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?, p. 86; February 21, 2000, review of Can You Count to a Googol?, p. 88.

School Library Journal, May, 1995, Frances E. Millhouser, review of What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew?, p. 117; January, 1997, Virginia Opocensky, review of How Do You Lift a Lion?, p. 110; May, 2000, Adele Greenlee, review of Can You Count to a Googol?, p. 165; January, 2003, Wanda Meyers-Hines, review of How Do You Know What Time It Is?, p. 132; January, 2005, Deborah Rothaug, review of What's Older than a Giant Tortoise?, p. 118; February, 2007, Christine Markley, review of Did a Dinosaur Drink This Water?, p. 114.