The Warlord's Beads (Warlord's Series) - Hardcover

Pilegard, Virginia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565548639 ISBN 13: 9781565548633

Publisher: Pelican Publishing, 2001

Synopsis

Introduce your little reader to numbers with this tale of a boy in ancient China crafting an abacus to help his father count a warlord’s treasure.

Young Chuan lives with his father in the beautiful palace of a powerful Chinese warlord. As a reward for his cleverness in solving the warlord’s puzzle, Father is given the job of tallying the warlord’s treasure―brilliant jewels, rich brocades, and spices from a thousand lands. Life at the palace is luxurious but filled with so many interruptions Father often loses count! The varying totals lead the suspicious warlord to accuse him of stealing, and Father is about to lose hope. Just in time, Chuan discovers a special use for the warlord’s lovely jade beads―a use that will help Father keep an accurate tally and cause the warlord to pronounce Chuan as clever as his Father. Often used by teachers of the primary grades to illustrate the powerful concept of “base ten,” various types of counting frames appeared in China during the Middle Ages. The Warlord’s Beads is a valuable tool for introducing young readers to the wonder of numbers as well as the beauty and mystery of ancient China.

Praise for The Warlord’s Beads

A November/December 2001 Booksense 76 Selection

Accelerated Reader Program Selection

“Debon’s distinctive artwork adds to the fairy tale feeling of this story.” ―Children’s Literature

“Debon evocatively depicts court dress and decorative details . . . Capped with a diagram for a modern version of Chuan’s counting frame made of cardboard, pipe cleaners, and o-shaped breakfast cereal.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Debon’s well-composed, often dramatic, and sometimes comical paintings bring the story to life. With or without the math lesson, a good picture book for reading aloud.” ―Booklist 

“Helpful to children learning how to count, add, and subtract and is a good choice for most collections.” ―School Library Journal

“Children will not be disappointed in this sequel to the award-winning The Warlord’s Puzzle.” ―JoAnn Lum, Hipfish Magazine

About this title

About the Author

Together, the team of Virginia Walton Pilegard and illustrator Nicolas Debon has earned great praise for the highly successful Warlord's Series. The Warlord's Puzzle was selected for the Book Sense '76 list, a compilation of independent booksellers' top picks across the country, in May 2000 and is part of the California Board of Education's recommended reading list for grades K-12. The Warlord's Beads made the Book Sense '76 list in November 2001.  Pilegard's lifelong desire to write and her sense of wonder led her to create stories for children in which she uses informal geometry, mathematics, and science concepts to strengthen students' visual-learning abilities. Believing a good picture book can help children process math concepts in three ways, she has completed eight mathematical adventures. In each, bright pictures give visual clues, the story begging to be read aloud offers auditory clues, and a simple craft provides tactical kinesthetic clues to enrich children's learning.  For each of the Warlord's books, which are set in China, Pilegard spends hours in university and public libraries, scours bookstores and the Internet, quizzes Chinese American friends, and corresponds with authorities on various aspects of Chinese life from Seattle to Beijing in order to bring authenticity to the series. In August 2002 and again in November 2007, she traveled to China to continue her research.  A proud member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the California Reading Association, and the California Mathematics Council, Pilegard has worked as an elementary-school teacher and has volunteered in a juvenile corrections facility. She and her husband, Richard, are proud parents and grandparents.

From the Back Cover

A NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 BOOKSENSE 76 SELECTION
ACCELERATED READER PROGRAM SELECTION

"Debon's distinctive artwork adds to the fairy tale feeling of this story."
--Children's Literature

"Debon evocatively depicts court dress and decorative details . . . capped with a diagram for a modern version of Chuan's counting frame made of cardboard, pipe cleaners, and o-shaped breakfast cereal"
--Kirkus Reviews

"With or without the math lesson, a good picture book for reading aloud."
--Booklist

"Helpful to children learning how to count, add, and subtract and is a good choice for most collections."
--School Library Journal

"Virginia Walton Pilegard's The Warlord's Puzzle explained the origins of the tangram. Now, detailing a boy's attempts to count the warlord's treasure, she investigates another mathematical invention, the abacus . . ."
--Publishers Weekly

"Children will not be disappointed in this sequel to the award-winning The Warlord's Puzzle."
--JoAnn Lum, Hipfish Magazine

Shining bronze coins, elegant jade statues, valuable jewels, and spices of all kinds found their way into the counting room for Father to inventory, but with almost constant interruptions, he keeps losing his place! When the totals begin to vary, the warlord suspects Father is a thief. Clever son Chuan knows better and devises a simple way to quickly and accurately count all the treasure the warlord gathers.

From the Inside Flap

A NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 BOOKSENSE 76 SELECTION
ACCELERATED READER PROGRAM SELECTION

“Debon’s distinctive artwork adds to the fairy tale feeling of this story.”
—Children’s Literature

“Debon evocatively depicts court dress and decorative details . . . capped with a diagram for a modern version of Chuan’s counting frame made of cardboard, pipe cleaners, and o-shaped breakfast cereal”
—Kirkus Reviews

“With or without the math lesson, a good picture book for reading aloud.”
—Booklist

“Helpful to children learning how to count, add, and subtract and is a good choice for most collections.”
—School Library Journal

“Virginia Walton Pilegard’s The Warlord’s Puzzle explained the origins of the tangram. Now, detailing a boy’s attempts to count the warlord’s treasure, she investigates another mathematical invention, the abacus . . .”
—Publishers Weekly

“Children will not be disappointed in this sequel to the award-winning The Warlord’s Puzzle.”
—JoAnn Lum, Hipfish Magazine

Shining bronze coins, elegant jade statues, valuable jewels, and spices of all kinds found their way into the counting room for Father to inventory, but with almost constant interruptions, he keeps losing his place! When the totals begin to vary, the warlord suspects Father is a thief. Clever son Chuan knows better and devises a simple way to quickly and accurately count all the treasure the warlord gathers.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 3--A story set in ancient China. In exchange for warm beds and enough to eat, Chuan's father must inventory all of a warlord's many treasures. He fears that the powerful man will accuse him of stealing because he keeps losing count. Chuan sees that the task is overwhelming and volunteers to help. His father asks him to hold up one finger for every 10 boxes that he counts. When all his fingers are up, Chuan uses his toes to count by hundreds. Eventually he finds 10 switches and places 10 beads on each switch. Now he can keep track of his father's counting by using the beads. A simple abacus is invented. The book ends with a brief history of counting frames and a craft. Hues of beige and brown with rich yellows and blues create a Chinese tapestry, and the figures have a claylike stature. This book will be helpful to children learning how to count, add, and subtract and is a good choice for most collections.

Karen Land, Greenport Public School, NY

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Last year, Virginia Walton Pilegard's The Warlord's Puzzle explained the origins of the tangram. Now, detailing a boy's attempts to count the warlord's treasure, she investigates another mathematical invention, the abacus, in The Warlord's Beads, illus. by Nicolas Debon. A historical note traces the tool to 14th-century China; instructions for making your own abacus are included.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-8. In this tale, necessity inspires the invention of the abacus. The Warlord's Puzzle (2000), also by Pilegard and Debon, explained how a boy and his father gain their ruler's approval by solving a geometric puzzle, familiar to math students as a tangram. In this tale, fear of the warlord's wrath inspires the boy to invent a precursor to the abacus. The father, now counter of the warlord's treasures, finds himself suspected of theft because his totals vary from day to day. Realizing that the different sums result from his father's difficulty counting large numbers in his head amid interruptions and distractions, the boy strings beads on switches to keep track of the sums. On the last two pages, Pilegard offers a brief note on the history of the abacus and instructions for making one using Fruit Loops and pipe cleaners in a cardboard frame. Debon's well-composed, often dramatic, and sometimes comical paintings bring the story to life. With or without the math lesson, a good picture book for reading aloud. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Pelican Publishing
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1565548639
• ISBN 13: 9781565548633
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Debon Nicolas
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32