Monster Math - Hardcover

Miranda, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152018352 ISBN 13: 9780152018351

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1999

Synopsis

During a boisterous birthday bash, fifty partying monsters wreak havoc, until Monster Mom decides that enough is enough and the partygoers reluctantly depart, until just one little monster remains. By the author of To Market, To Market.

About this title

About the Authors

ANNE MIRANDA has written many children’s books, including Night Songs, which she also illustrated, and Glad Monster, Sad Monster: A Book About Feelings. She lives in Madrid, Spain.

No Bio

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2-A counting book that shows a little monster greeting guests arriving for a party. The rhyming text describes the guests' antics and the eventual chaos: "Nine sticky monsters are washing their faces./Ten speedy monsters run ten monster races./The monsters keep coming and Mother's lost count./Ten more make twenty-a monstrous amount!" The numbers mount until there are 50 revelers in all. They leave in varying-sized groups until just one little monster remains. The party ends with an exhausted mother, a wrecked house, and a little monster that is "grateful and glad./It's the best birthday party that she's ever had!" The chubby, toylike creatures, each different, are shown in friendly, bouncy poses. The pages are filled with action, but most of the activities are not particularly imaginative and there is little in the way of wordplay. The story line functions primarily as a vehicle for counting and introducing the concepts of addition and subtraction. Kate Duke's One Guinea Pig Is Not Enough (Dutton, 1998) tells a bit more of a story through the illustrations. Some children, however, may find the little monsters' antics appealing and enjoy seeing the pages fill up with creatures as the numbers increase.
Adele Greenlee, Bethel College, St. Paul, MN
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"The house is a wreck and the couch has been frosted./ The food's been devoured and Mother's exhausted." But what else could be expected when a little red-nosed, green-skinned monster invites 49 of her nearest and dearest monster friends to a birthday party? From start to finish Miranda (To Market, To Market) and Powell (Just Dessert) chronicle the offbeat birthday bash with zany ?lan, and the math lesson feels like a natural component. Things start normally enoughAfor a monster party, at least. The first nine monster guests arrive one by one and prove a relatively manageable bunch: Mother, a multi-armed purple mutant with bright orange bouffant and harlequin spectacles, even expertly organizes a sack race for the assembled ghouls. But when more monsters start arrivingAin groups of 10, no lessAand finally number 50, Mother realizes that the situation is out of hand, and she instigates some major monster subtraction. Within a few pages, the little green birthday monster is left alone, but she's "grateful and glad./ It's the best birthday party that she's ever had!" Powell's mega-motley monster crew is a hoot (even very sensitive children will be hard pressed to find one beastie that's genuinely scary), and Miranda once again shows that she has few rivals when it comes to spinning out a story of comic chaos. Ages 3-8. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Miranda's book counts the monsters gathering at a birthday party, while a simple rhyming text keeps the tally and surveys the action: ``Seven starved monsters are licking the dishes./Eight blow out candles and make birthday wishes.'' The counting proceeds to ten, then by tens to fifty, then gradually returns to one, which makes the monster's mother, a purple pin-headed octopus, very happy. The book is surprisingly effective due to Powell's artwork; the color has texture and density, as if it were poured onto the page, but the real attention-getter is the singularity of every monster attendee. They are highly individual and, therefore, eminently countable. As the numbers start crawling upward, it is both fun and a challenge to try to recognize monsters who have appeared in previous pages, or to attempt to stay focused when counting the swirling or bunched creatures. The story has glints of humor, and in combination with the illustrations is a grand addition to the counting shelf. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152018352
• ISBN 13: 9780152018351
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Powell Polly
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32