The Greedy Triangle (Brainy Day Books) - Hardcover

Burns, Marilyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590489917 ISBN 13: 9780590489911

Publisher: Scholastic Press, 1995

Synopsis

In this introduction to polygons, a triangle convinces a shapeshifter to make him a quadrilateral and later a pentagon, but discovers that where angles and sides are concerned, more isn't always better.

About this title

About the Author

Author and math teacher Marilyn Burns is noted for her many books that instill an interest and enthusiasm for mathematics into her school-age readers. Her books use traditional and original literature to address mathematical concepts. In addition to her instructive children’s books Marilyn is the author of many books for teachers. She has also written books for children about food, time, and Hanukkah. She says that her writing career began as a “fluke” when a friend asked her to write a book about math. This was the jumping off point for her literary career, during which she has written about a dozen books for children and the same number for teachers. She currently gives lectures and lessons in schools. Burns was born in 1941 and resides in Sausalito, CA.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 1?An offbeat introduction to geometry. When a triangle tires of having only three sides, he asks the shapeshifter to change him first into a quadrilateral, then a pentagon, a hexagon, and so forth until he realizes he is happiest as a triangle: he can hold up a roof, be a slice of a pie and, best of all, slip into place when people put their hands on their hips. "That way I always hear the latest news...which I can tell my friends." The text is clever and shows more than the usual places to find shapes?part of a computer screen, a section of a soccer ball, a floor tile. The acrylic and colored-pencil illustrations are colorful, abstract, and filled with smiling shapes done in shades of turquoise, pink, and yellow. A two-page spread of suggestions for adults to reinforce the math lessons featured is included at the end of the book.?Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author of The I Hate Mathematics Book celebrates geometric shapes in this informative but visually cluttered addition to the Marilyn Burns Brainy Day series. Her main character, a triangle with gleaming black eyes and a perky grin, leads a full life-it can take the shape of a slice of pie or rest in an elbow's angle "when people put their hands on hips." Yet the triangle aspires to greater complexity, so it asks a "shapeshifter" to turn it into a quadrilateral (the shape of a TV or a book's page), then into a pentagon (a house's facade) and so forth. Burns fails to show that the triangle is "greedy"; it's just adventurous. But her story successfully introduces basic polygons, and her afterword to adults suggests ways of teaching children some of the finer points about geometry (e.g., the concept of a plane or rhomboids). For his picture book debut, Silveria chooses tart shades of yellow, orange, lavender and green. His airbrushed colored-pencil compositions have suitably angular details; speckled paint and multicolored doodles soften the effect but create a sense of disorder. If the art as a whole is somewhat jumbled, readers still come away from this volume noticing and naming the shapes of the objects around them. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-8. The basic plot is as tired as they come: a little Whatever wants to be Something Else, but finally decides that being a Whatever is best after all. In this case, Burns give the story a geometric twist: a little triangle who's tired of being a triangle goes to "the shape-shifter," who adds one more side and one more angle, making the little fellow a quadrilateral. It soon grows tired of being a quadrilateral, though, and returns to the shape-shifter to gain another side and angle, and another, and another, until the poor little polygon is almost circular. Eye-zapping graphics, airbrushed acrylics with colored pencil, give the crowded pages some pizzazz. Burns' appended notes for adults discuss the terminology and concepts and suggest activities to increase children's understanding of geometry. Useful, perhaps, as a supplement to the math curriculum. For another Marilyn Burns Brainy Day Book, see Friedman on p.1004. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590489917
• ISBN 13: 9780590489911
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Silveria Gordon
• Number of pages: 40