Contrary to my book review partner, I did not think Zero the Hero was cheesy. I thought it was cute. Narration, speech bubbles, cartoonish illustrations, and comic relief will keep a reader going.
Showing posts with label Mathematics Literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mathematics Literature. Show all posts
Zero the Hero According to K
Zero the Hero by Joan Holub
This book is okay. It kind of bored me because of the fact it's mostly directed towards children. It’s pretty cheesy on many levels. Despite the fact that it is cheesy and seems not that creative, you do, as you do in every picture book you read, learn a lesson from the overall plot no matter how corny it is along the way. The other numbers learn that they do in fact need our hero, zero, after he leaves them. He leaves them because he finds out if he multiplies himself times the other numbers they will disappear. The whole time before this the other numbers had been making fun of him. He felt bad about turning his “friends” into nothings, so he fled. Shortly after he fled, they realized they needed him. This teaches the lesson that you can’t take people for granted because you never know when you may need them for your world to fall into place. Now this book wasn’t so corny until… I got to the part where the numbers were attacked by “roman soldiers” which were roman numerals.
Now zero the hero, despite the fact he had been shunned, still wanted to help his other numbers and live up to his name as the hero. He shows them he can make stuff disappear by multiplying himself with it, and the roman numerals run off. Of course just like real life, everyone wants to be friends with the hero after the fact even if they didn’t believe in him prior. This is just another life lesson that a kid reading this alone wouldn’t exactly get all the way. It would have to be explained. ~~Z.J.
Count My Kisses, Little One by Ruthie May
Count My Kisses, Little One is a new book I’m adding to the list of mathematics literature under topics on this blog. Illustrated by Tamsin Ainslie, this padded board book shows a little girl playing with her toys: a stuffed dog, bear, and rabbit. The cute dog, with a patch over one eye, is her “baby,” whom she shatters with a total of ten kisses, all represented by pink and red hearts. The rhyming text will be fun to share with little ones.
The images are against a white background which makes the pastel colors even brighter. The hearts are clear and visible, making it easy for young readers to find and count them. Yet, some readers might find it hard to focus on the hearts since some of the pages include other alluring images. For example, when the narrator has “Five kisses for baby along the garden path,” readers will probably be drawn to the tree, flowers, butterflies, and the girl’s friends.
Note:
Take a look at Lisa Rojany Buccieri's review. She writes more about the little girl's parental roleplay and the book's time sequence.
The images are against a white background which makes the pastel colors even brighter. The hearts are clear and visible, making it easy for young readers to find and count them. Yet, some readers might find it hard to focus on the hearts since some of the pages include other alluring images. For example, when the narrator has “Five kisses for baby along the garden path,” readers will probably be drawn to the tree, flowers, butterflies, and the girl’s friends.
Note:
Take a look at Lisa Rojany Buccieri's review. She writes more about the little girl's parental roleplay and the book's time sequence.
Zero by Kathryn Otoshi
Ever wonder what it’s like to be zero, to really want to “count too”? It’s miserable. You look at the other numbers and envy them. You even try to change yourself to look just like them, but nothing works until you look within and appreciate the assets that are deep inside.
This book is great for reading aloud.
I just stumbled upon it at the library. Now I have to read One
by Kathryn Otoshi.
This book is great for reading aloud.
I just stumbled upon it at the library. Now I have to read One
by Kathryn Otoshi.
Georgia’s Bones by Jen Bryant
Most scholars agree that there are numerous benefits to using math oriented children’s books in the classroom. Georgia’s Bones is one of those books that one might say is tangentially related to math. Bryant tells the story of Georgia O’Keefe’s early fascination with shapes and spaces in the natural world (e.g., leaves, stones, bones), especially near her Wisconsin home.
Take a look at Math Books to see more math oriented books for grades K-8. These books are a quick summer read for youth (and adults).
Take a look at Math Books to see more math oriented books for grades K-8. These books are a quick summer read for youth (and adults).
The Wishing Club by Donna Jo Napoli
Napoli, Donna Jo. The Wishing Club: A Story About Fractions. Illus. Anna Currey. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2007. (Grades 3-6)
Eight-year-old Sally, her twin sister, and her two brothers form a wishing club after Petey and Joey both make wishes on a comet, only to get a fraction of the item they wished for: Petey wishes for a dollar, but gets a quarter and Joey wishes for a cookie and gets a half of a cookie. The siblings quickly realize that though this wishing business is warped, it does have its benefits. Something or someone seems to be using their ages to reward them with a fraction of the item they requested. SO they decide to pool their wishes and focus on one thing: a pet pig. Luckily each child doesn’t end up with a ham or an ear. Instead, they get a cute piglet.
Take a look at Math Books to see more math oriented books for grades K-8.
Eight-year-old Sally, her twin sister, and her two brothers form a wishing club after Petey and Joey both make wishes on a comet, only to get a fraction of the item they wished for: Petey wishes for a dollar, but gets a quarter and Joey wishes for a cookie and gets a half of a cookie. The siblings quickly realize that though this wishing business is warped, it does have its benefits. Something or someone seems to be using their ages to reward them with a fraction of the item they requested. SO they decide to pool their wishes and focus on one thing: a pet pig. Luckily each child doesn’t end up with a ham or an ear. Instead, they get a cute piglet.
Take a look at Math Books to see more math oriented books for grades K-8.
Read any good math oriented picture books lately?
I am working on a short piece about math related picture books, especially books recently (after 2007) published.
Come on all of you picture book fans, please share some titles with me. Thanks!
Come on all of you picture book fans, please share some titles with me. Thanks!
Any Book Can Be a Math Book
“Any Book Can Be a Math Book” is my favorite chapter of my new book with Sueanne McKinney titled Mathematics in the K-8 Classroom and Library (Linworth Publishing). In it we take books we like, such as Olivia… and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer and Chicken Soup by Jean Van Leeuwen, and tease the math out of them. OK, I’m not doing much teasing, as I can never remember math facts. That’s why writing the book with Sue was scary for me. (I know I wrote about this before, but I can’t let it go.) Besides, will people think I know math now? I hope not. I realized I had a problem when I tried to help my nephew in North Carolina with division from my kitchen in Virginia:
Grab 12 straws, I tell him.
Nephew: Why?
K: I’m going to help you with math.
N: OK. (He starts to count up to 20 straws while I’m trying to tell him to stop after 12 and then make groups of 3.)
Well, I’m not a math teacher. How should I know much more than basic counting? I just like reading books.
We found some good ones, too:
Bruchac, Joseph with Jonathan London. Cheng, Andrea.
**Smith, Cynthia Leitich.
We plan to offer a workshop at ODU on Saturday, October 16, 9-noon called Multicultural Math Literature in the Library!
Grab 12 straws, I tell him.
Nephew: Why?
K: I’m going to help you with math.
N: OK. (He starts to count up to 20 straws while I’m trying to tell him to stop after 12 and then make groups of 3.)
Well, I’m not a math teacher. How should I know much more than basic counting? I just like reading books.
We found some good ones, too:
Bruchac, Joseph with Jonathan London. Cheng, Andrea.
**Smith, Cynthia Leitich.
We plan to offer a workshop at ODU on Saturday, October 16, 9-noon called Multicultural Math Literature in the Library!
Math Books
In the spirit of my new book with Sueanne McKinney titled Mathematics in the K-8 Classroom and Library 
(Linworth Publishing), I’ve decided to update this entry as I read books about mathematics concepts and mathematicians. As we did in our book, I am using National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) content standards as an organizational tool, with one exception—biography. Of course, some books cover more than one standard, so I placed it where I thought it should go. Feel free to make suggestions on how I can improve this page.
Biography Illus. John O'Brien. New York: Henry Holt and Co. (Grades 2-3)
All throughout his life, or so the author says, people called Leonardi Fibonacci a blockhead. This story tries to explain why. It begins like most “great” literature with a lone man perched on high who says, “You can call me…” before narrating how Fibonacci was quick and precise at math at an early age. The boy loved numbers and counted everything he came in contact with in the classroom and (when he was bored while waiting for others to finish the assignment) in nature. Fibonacci easily slipped into daydreaming, thus, earning the name Blockhead when the teacher caught him.He eventually wrote a book about numbers that included riddles that revealed the Fibonacci pattern: “If you add any two consecutive numbers in the pattern, you’d get the next number” so that it looks like, 1,1,2,3,5,8… There is a brief bio of Fibonacci in the back and a few activities to help readers use what they know about Fibonacci numbers.
Number and Operations
Adler, David A. Fun with Roman Numerals
. Illus. Edward Miller. New York: Holiday House, 2008. (Grades 2-5)
This book offers simple instructions on how to read and write Roman numerals.
Allen, Susan and Jane Lindaman. Used Any Numbers Lately
. Illus. by Vicky Enright. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press, 2008. (Grades K-2)
Using the alphabet as an organizational tool, the authors help readers see we come in contact with numbers all day everyday, from the numbers on the calendar and on the phone to the numbers above room doors and on volume dials.
Horton, Joan. Math Attack!
Illus. Kyrsten Brooker. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. (Grades 1-3)
Rhyming text describes a young girl’s anxiety about learning the multiplication table. When her teacher asks the class a multiplication fact, numbers burst out of the girl’s head, sending everyone in panic.
Markle, Michelle. Tyrannosaurus Math
. Illus. Doug Cushman. Berkeley, Calif.: Tricycle Press, 2009. (Grades K-3)
As soon as Tyrannosaurus Math is born, he begins counting and adding body parts and family members. Naturally, the older he gets, the more developed his math skills become.
Algebra
Lichtman, Wendy. Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra
(Do the Math). New York: HarperCollins, 2007. (Grades 5-8)
Tess is an eighth grader who is passionate about algebra. She uses algebra and mathematic concepts to names things, like her friends—s5 (Sammy) and /M/ (Miranda), and to make observations, like how often a peer is dishonest (percentages). Also see The Writing on the Wall
(2008).
Geometry
Hoban, Tana. So Many Circles, So Many Squares
. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1998. (Grades K-2)
Full-color photographs show wheels, tomatoes, onions, dartboards, and boxes to help reinforce the idea that shapes are all around us.
Moranville, Sharelle Byars. A Higher Geometry
. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. (Grades 8)
Math concepts come so easily to fifteen-year-old Anna, she wants to enter a math competition and study math in college. Since women rarely pursued math related careers in the 1950s, Anna’s family and friends do not understand her ambitions.
Pearsall, Shelley. All of the Above: A Novel. Illus. Javaka Steptoe. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. (Grade 5-8)
Multiple narrators tell the story of what happens when a group of students and a teacher in a Cleveland, Ohio, middle school decide they will form a math club and build a tetrahedron so big it will earn them notoriety.
Measurement
Pelley, Kathleen T. Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer
.Illus. S.D. Schindler. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Grades K-3)
Magnus Maximus likes to measure everything! But he doesn’t measure the regular stuff like height. He measures “wetness and dryness…and everything else in between”. He also likes to count. He counts things on people, like freckles and measles. He counts things on animals, like whiskers and fleas. People praise and honor Magnus Maximus for his efforts, and he is eventually dubbed “the town’s official measurer”.
Data Analysis and Probability
Einhorn, Edward. A Very Improbable Story: A Math Adventure. Illus. Adam Gustavson. Watertown, Massachusetts: Charlesbridge, 2008. (Grades 2-5)
Ethan wakes up and finds a cat named Odds on top of his head and he will not get off . unless Ethan wins a game of probability. Ethan doesn’t have time for games, unless it’s soccer, but Odds insists and Ethan gives in.
Roza, Greg. Heads or Tails?: Exploring Probability through Games
(PowerMath). New York: PowerKids, 2004. (Grades 3-4)
The author shows how probability works in the real world, whether you’re taking a true-or-false test or rolling dice.
(Linworth Publishing), I’ve decided to update this entry as I read books about mathematics concepts and mathematicians. As we did in our book, I am using National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) content standards as an organizational tool, with one exception—biography. Of course, some books cover more than one standard, so I placed it where I thought it should go. Feel free to make suggestions on how I can improve this page.Biography Illus. John O'Brien. New York: Henry Holt and Co. (Grades 2-3)
All throughout his life, or so the author says, people called Leonardi Fibonacci a blockhead. This story tries to explain why. It begins like most “great” literature with a lone man perched on high who says, “You can call me…” before narrating how Fibonacci was quick and precise at math at an early age. The boy loved numbers and counted everything he came in contact with in the classroom and (when he was bored while waiting for others to finish the assignment) in nature. Fibonacci easily slipped into daydreaming, thus, earning the name Blockhead when the teacher caught him.He eventually wrote a book about numbers that included riddles that revealed the Fibonacci pattern: “If you add any two consecutive numbers in the pattern, you’d get the next number” so that it looks like, 1,1,2,3,5,8… There is a brief bio of Fibonacci in the back and a few activities to help readers use what they know about Fibonacci numbers.
Number and Operations
Adler, David A. Fun with Roman Numerals
. Illus. Edward Miller. New York: Holiday House, 2008. (Grades 2-5)This book offers simple instructions on how to read and write Roman numerals.
Allen, Susan and Jane Lindaman. Used Any Numbers Lately
. Illus. by Vicky Enright. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press, 2008. (Grades K-2)Using the alphabet as an organizational tool, the authors help readers see we come in contact with numbers all day everyday, from the numbers on the calendar and on the phone to the numbers above room doors and on volume dials.
Horton, Joan. Math Attack!
Illus. Kyrsten Brooker. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. (Grades 1-3) Rhyming text describes a young girl’s anxiety about learning the multiplication table. When her teacher asks the class a multiplication fact, numbers burst out of the girl’s head, sending everyone in panic.
Markle, Michelle. Tyrannosaurus Math
. Illus. Doug Cushman. Berkeley, Calif.: Tricycle Press, 2009. (Grades K-3)As soon as Tyrannosaurus Math is born, he begins counting and adding body parts and family members. Naturally, the older he gets, the more developed his math skills become.
Algebra
Lichtman, Wendy. Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra
(Do the Math). New York: HarperCollins, 2007. (Grades 5-8)Tess is an eighth grader who is passionate about algebra. She uses algebra and mathematic concepts to names things, like her friends—s5 (Sammy) and /M/ (Miranda), and to make observations, like how often a peer is dishonest (percentages). Also see The Writing on the Wall
(2008).Geometry
Hoban, Tana. So Many Circles, So Many Squares
. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1998. (Grades K-2)Full-color photographs show wheels, tomatoes, onions, dartboards, and boxes to help reinforce the idea that shapes are all around us.
Moranville, Sharelle Byars. A Higher Geometry
. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. (Grades 8)Math concepts come so easily to fifteen-year-old Anna, she wants to enter a math competition and study math in college. Since women rarely pursued math related careers in the 1950s, Anna’s family and friends do not understand her ambitions.
Pearsall, Shelley. All of the Above: A Novel. Illus. Javaka Steptoe. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. (Grade 5-8)
Multiple narrators tell the story of what happens when a group of students and a teacher in a Cleveland, Ohio, middle school decide they will form a math club and build a tetrahedron so big it will earn them notoriety.
Measurement
Pelley, Kathleen T. Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer
.Illus. S.D. Schindler. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Grades K-3)Magnus Maximus likes to measure everything! But he doesn’t measure the regular stuff like height. He measures “wetness and dryness…and everything else in between”. He also likes to count. He counts things on people, like freckles and measles. He counts things on animals, like whiskers and fleas. People praise and honor Magnus Maximus for his efforts, and he is eventually dubbed “the town’s official measurer”.
Data Analysis and Probability
Einhorn, Edward. A Very Improbable Story: A Math Adventure. Illus. Adam Gustavson. Watertown, Massachusetts: Charlesbridge, 2008. (Grades 2-5)
Ethan wakes up and finds a cat named Odds on top of his head and he will not get off . unless Ethan wins a game of probability. Ethan doesn’t have time for games, unless it’s soccer, but Odds insists and Ethan gives in.
Roza, Greg. Heads or Tails?: Exploring Probability through Games
(PowerMath). New York: PowerKids, 2004. (Grades 3-4)The author shows how probability works in the real world, whether you’re taking a true-or-false test or rolling dice.
Mathematics in the K-8 Classroom and Library
ISBN: 978-1-58683-522-4
168 pages
*Taking advantage of quality, motivating literature during mathematics instruction pays off, especially when teachers and media specialists work together to convey crucial mathematical concepts and standards. Mathematics in the K-8 Classroom and Library by Sueanne McKinney and KaaVonia Hinton shows you how it’s done. After an introduction to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) Principles and Process Standards, each remaining chapter is devoted to an NCTM content standard. The book offers engaging, research-based strategies and booklists of specific titles that, together, can be used to increase student achievement.
*Adapted from the publisher’s announcement
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