Una vida tan larga

How long does a fly live? What about a bird? And which lives longer—a chameleon or a snake? Such a Long Life by Giulia Vetri compares animal lifespans through unexpected equivalencies. Did you know that an elephant lives about sixty years—the equivalent of eighty monarch butterfly lifetimes? And do you have any idea how many squirrel lifetimes fit into a single shark’s lifespan? There are insects that inhabit the planet for mere days and creatures that live for over a thousand years; this book invites us to meet them all, play with the concept of time, and reflect on the lifespans of creatures great and small—humans included. In this picture book, Vetri turns statistics into a game: she divides and multiplies years, establishes intriguing scales, and encourages readers to do the math themselves—for instance, how many mosquito lifetimes fit into a single year? It all unfolds in a universe of soft watercolors, where the illustrations both inform and evoke. It is a fun way to explore science and biodiversity, and to understand the factors that shorten or extend a living being's life—such as environment, species, sex, or the human impact on ecosystems. An atlas of lived time that both sparks and satisfies curiosity.