You Can, Toucan, Math: Word Problem-Solving Fun - Hardcover

Adler, David A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823419193 ISBN 13: 9780823419197

Publisher: Holiday House, 2006

Synopsis

This book introduces kids to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in a fun and unthreatening fashion. Math riddles encourage young readers to think through math problems as they study both the amusing verse and pictures. Solutions and tables are provided.

About this title

About the Author

David A. Adler taught math for eight years. In that time he learned many things from his students -- including the fact that they thought fractions were hard. So he decided to prove that learning how to work with fractions is not only easy, but also fun! He lives with his family on Long Island. You can learn more about him at www. davidaadler.com.

Edward Miller loves to make concepts clear to kids and has demonstrated that in his previous nonfiction books. School Library Journal praised his Alphabeep: A Zipping, Zooming ABC by Debora Pearson as "stunningly illustrated." He lives in New York City. You can visit his website at www.edmiller.com.

Reviews

Grade 2-4–From Crows in Rows to Obese Geese, this title presents a flock of bird-themed rhyming word problems. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables conveniently cover the endpapers, and a brief introduction to each mathematical function is provided on the first spread. Miller's festive, computer-generated illustrations give the book a retro look and jazz up the sometimes-forced, occasionally bland rhymes. The word problems are also somewhat repetitive. While this book is undoubtedly more enticing than worksheets, other titles do more to inspire and teach children. Jon Scieszka's Math Curse (Viking, 1995), for example, is a much better choice for making math fun and stretching kids' critical-thinking skills, while Greg Tang's The Grapes of Math (Scholastic, 2001) seamlessly embeds problem-solving strategies right into the (much more fluid and funny) rhymes. Still, Adler's offering is a suitable addition to collections in need of another math picture book.–Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gr. 1-3. Nineteen kinds of birds are featured in this collection of beginning word problems in verse. Adler's 20 "number riddles" challenge readers to decide whether to use addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division to find the answer. Luckily for younger kids, many of the answers can be determined by simply counting the birds in the colorful pictures. A typical riddle goes: "Scissor-tailed flycatchers / sitting in trees. / "Scissor-tailed flycatchers / sitting in threes. / Three to a tree. / Five trees in all. / How many scissor-tailed flycatchers / sitting in trees?" In small type and upside-down, a sentence below the text on each page tells the process for finding the answer and gives the answer itself. With serviceable verse and attractive computer-assisted illustrations, this will be useful for parents and teachers who want to introduce techniques for solving word problems. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0823419193
• ISBN 13: 9780823419197
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Miller Edward
• Number of pages: 32