Math for All Seasons http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Math-for-All-Seasons-Greg-Tang-Harry-Briggs-Director/9780439210423

By Greg Tang, Harry Briggs (Director), Harry Briggs (Illustrated by)

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Reviews

Move over, worksheets and pencils! The team behind The Grapes of Math once again proves that posing number problems through verse and vivid pictures is a powerful path to math learning. With tides like "Raining Cats and Frogs" and "Amazing Grain," the poems span the seasons, encouraging readers to look for patterns and symmetry in the playful illustrations. Each poem poses a "how many" question about the accompanying picture of seasonal items, from acorns and hatching chicks to dandelions and icicles. Several creatively convey facts about their timely topics, as in "Not-So-Dandy Lions": 'These lions are a stubborn breed--/'There's never just a single weed./The trouble starts when they get loose They catch a breeze and reproduce!" the simple verse then hints at effective strategies to make counting faster and easier. With 10 dandelions pictured on the opposing page, Tang poses the question "How many plants are still in bloom?" then suggests: "Count by fives the plants you see, /Then subtract the seedy three!" Briggs sprinkles his computer-generated artwork with fun-loving graphics throughout. Summer-themed poems show a pigeon wearing swim goggles diving into a bird bath and a lemonade-drinking butterfly. Any time of year is a good time to delve into these pictorial puzzles.
--Publishers Weekly, Nov. 26th, 2001
Although these math riddles can be fun, there is a major discrepancy between the character of the book and the age group it is intended for. Tang's versified math problems encourage readers to tackle adition and subtraction questions in their head as well as on the page. With conceptual thinking involved, it is reasonable to peg this for six-to-ten-year-olds, despite the ultimate simplicity of the adding and subtracting. Readers have to learn to group objects--and the solutions at the end of the book explain any problems that have been too elusive or confounding. But it is difficult to see beyond these single-case scenarios; the groupings of objects u