Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems

Twenty-nine playful poems from the maven of math poetry + ingenious high-concept art = countless hours of mind-blowing, mathematical fun.


Award-winning author Betsy Franco is back with another pitch-perfect performance that explores a range of math topics—from fractions and time measurements to geometry and graphs—in a way that relates math to the daily lives of children. Even the most mathematically disinclined will warm to these innovative poems, illustrated with game-changing wit and whimsy by Priscilla Tey, whose clever mechanical “Numbots” guide readers through a surreal playground of calculated delights. From multiplying mice to missing socks, from stinky scales to bug races, this collection of imaginative verse subtracts the mystery, fear, and loathing from mathematics, making it engrossing and fun for all.

Betsy Franco is the award-winning author of more than eighty books for children, including Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and Other School Poems for Two Voices, Mathematickles!, Zero Is the Leaves on the Trees, Pond Circle, and other titles that explore math and science through poetry. She lives in California.

Priscilla Tey is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and the author-illustrator of In-Between Things and Twitchy Witchy Itch. She lives in Singapore.