by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1995)
This book is an amazing mix of real math problems, invented math problems, and plenty of jokes. The books covers a wide variety of math content (equivalent values, reading graphs, rectangular arrays, fractional parts, counting in different bases, the Mayan numerical system), but does it in a way that can be read over as a story or closely examined. The problems rolling around in the narrators head sometimes devolve into incoherent asides ("Does tunafish + tunafish = fournafish?"), and other times into witty math jokes (the fact that the teacher Mrs. Fibonacci counts 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11). Regardless of the age of the reader, their math ability level, or the level of anxiety they feel when solving math problems -- everyone can enjoy this book. Lane Smith's bizarre and complex collage illustrations lend themselves nicely to the narrator's predicament, and his feeling that he's "about to really lose it" because of his curse.
This book obviously lends itself to teaching mathematics. However, I feel that the overall feel of the text, and not the content itself, is the most important part for elementary learners. The hilarious questions and asides in the book give a light and comical quality to what many students feel anxiety about every day. I feel this book is a great way to show kids that math anxiety does not need to be there -- because, like the narrator, they are actually solving math problems on a regular basis. Of course the book could also be used to create warm-up problems for a variety of math lessons, as even the endpapers have charts of equivalent values and multiplication charts. What a great read for mathematicians of all ages!
This book is an amazing mix of real math problems, invented math problems, and plenty of jokes. The books covers a wide variety of math content (equivalent values, reading graphs, rectangular arrays, fractional parts, counting in different bases, the Mayan numerical system), but does it in a way that can be read over as a story or closely examined. The problems rolling around in the narrators head sometimes devolve into incoherent asides ("Does tunafish + tunafish = fournafish?"), and other times into witty math jokes (the fact that the teacher Mrs. Fibonacci counts 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11). Regardless of the age of the reader, their math ability level, or the level of anxiety they feel when solving math problems -- everyone can enjoy this book. Lane Smith's bizarre and complex collage illustrations lend themselves nicely to the narrator's predicament, and his feeling that he's "about to really lose it" because of his curse.
This book obviously lends itself to teaching mathematics. However, I feel that the overall feel of the text, and not the content itself, is the most important part for elementary learners. The hilarious questions and asides in the book give a light and comical quality to what many students feel anxiety about every day. I feel this book is a great way to show kids that math anxiety does not need to be there -- because, like the narrator, they are actually solving math problems on a regular basis. Of course the book could also be used to create warm-up problems for a variety of math lessons, as even the endpapers have charts of equivalent values and multiplication charts. What a great read for mathematicians of all ages!
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