Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant

When Cao Chong’s father, the chancellor of the Han Empire, is given an elephant as a birthday present, everyone is excited. No one in the empire has seen an elephant before. Each person guesses how much the animal weighs, but they have no scale big enough to see who is right. Finally, Chong comes up with a creative solution for weighing the elephant. Read the book to discover how he does it.

Cao Chong was a real person, and this story is based on an actual event. This book is written in a fun way so that the reader can make guesses about weighing an elephant, too. I found the size of the large text a bit distracting, but my nine-year-old thought it was fine. I was impressed with the number and variety of educational activities in the back. There are science experiments, a discussion about how elephants are weighed today, a geography activity, and more information about Cao Chong. The activities complemented the story naturally and didn’t feel like they were added just to make the book educational. There’s also a link to a downloadable twenty-seven page PDF with more activities.

I recommend this book for schools and homeschools. I plan to read more books from this publisher.