How
Big is a Million?
A million is a
very big number. But exactly how big? Pipkin the penguin
wants to know just that. So he sets out on a heartwarming
journey of discovery.
The answer is
displayed on a fabulous poster of the starry night sky,
tucked in an envelope at the back of book.
How we
made a million stars
Anna writes: Before we decided to
write the book
How Big is a Million? we had
to check that it was
physically possible
to show a million of something in a book.
We made a printout
of a million dots - and it filled 16 picture book pages! The
million dots were passed around and taken home for
everyone's children to marvel at. By the time the printout
was returned to me, at least a hundred or so dots had been
obliterated by grubby fingers and torn edges.
It was clear that
the idea of being able to see an actual million of something
was a fascinating one - and not just to children!
The
story
Now I had to think
of a storyline. I kept looking at the million dots and
thinking how they reminded me of staring into the night sky.
I really liked the idea of linking the million with the
enormity of the universe, so I decided to make them a
million stars in the sky.
It's difficult to
grasp the enormity of a million, so I wanted Pipkin to be a
very determined little character. I decided it was best for
him to discover small numbers first, and build up to a whole
million.
Printing
a million
To make the million
dots into stars with Pip and his mama looking up at them, we
needed more space than on the original printout. So we
increased the size to 24 picture book pages. The production
department searched the world for a printing house that had
a large enough machine to print a piece of paper that size
in one go. I was afraid that if we stuck two or more sheets
together, then the tiniest inaccuracy would result in us
losing hundreds of stars.
Crashing
the computer
One of the
designers, Laura Parker, had the task of creating the
million stars. Working on a
computer, she divided the poster into smaller squares, then
designed a pattern of 420 tiny stars. One evening, she was
busy creating the million by repeating this pattern again
and again very, very carefully, turning it this way and that
to fill the area with no gaps or overlapping stars. She'd
made it to half a million when her computer crashed. It was
simply too much information for the computer to handle! She
had to start all over again the next day - only this time
she used the most powerful computer in the building.
Star
by star
In the corner of
the poster, we wanted the stars to peter out gently towards
Pip and his mama. Because it wasn't a regular pattern, Laura
had to hand-arrange them. I was absolutely terrified that
one would go missing, so I insisted that we count the
individually arranged section star by star. There were
12,580 stars. I counted them three times and another editor
checked them too - the number was exactly right. Laura also
left a margin around the sky so we could be sure that none
of the stars could fall off the edges of the poster in the
printing.
A
thousand snowflakes
After checking that
the million stars were correct, making sure there were a
thousand snowflakes and a hundred penguins was easy!
Anna
Milbourne, November 2007
