ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATHEMATICS-RELATED CHILDREN’S LITERATURE (BY CHAPTER) FOR
MATHEMATICS FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS: A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH (9th Edition)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATHEMATICS-RELATED CHILDREN'S
LITERATURE
This list of titles have all been evaluated and used in classrooms with mathematics education students. For each book a grade level is suggested. The categories are K-2, 3-5, 6-8, or all grade levels.
CHAPTER ONE
Scieszke, Jon. (1995). The math curse. New York: Viking.
Mrs. Fibonacci tells her students that almost everything can be thought of as a math problem. For the next 24 hours, a student in her class turns everything in her world into math problems. This book is appropriate for all grade levels.
About the mathematics: This very funny book shows how every part of our lives involves mathematics, from counting the teeth in one's mouth to finding the length of the Mississippi River in kilometers. The book encourages children to find mathematics in the world around them and to pose problems. This book also uses permutations, so it is appropriate for the study of probability.
Taback, Simms. (1997). There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. New York: Viking.
This book provides an illustrated example of the well-known poem that is fun to read, repeat, and look at.
About the mathematics: The repetitive rhyme of the book provides a growing pattern for children to learn. The book encourages children to observe, create, and analyze patterns, as a prelude to algebra.
Neuschwander, Cindy. (2007). Patterns in Peru. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
The Zills family visits Peru and the children find all kinds of patterns to interpret, from Aztec writing to the patterns on textiles.
About the mathematics This book introduces children to mathematical patterns in many forms and helps them realize that patterns abound in the natural world.
Additional Books of Interest for Chapter One
Clement, Rod. (1991). Counting on Frank. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens
Publishing.
A serious-looking boy makes calculations about the things in his world. For example, he calculates that: 24 dogs the size of his dog Frank could fit in his bedroom, he could write a line 7000 feet long before his pen runs out of ink, and it would take 11 hours and 45 minutes to fill his bathroom with water. These calculations and estimates are hilariously illustrated in this very enjoyable book.
This book is appropriate for grades 3-5 and 6-8.
About the mathematics: The book helps children view their world from a mathematical perspective. The character in the story often hypothesizes, using the word "If". For example, he states that the tree in his yard grows six feet per year. If he grew at the same rate he would be over 50 feet tall. He finds ways to answer his own hypotheses, using estimation and proportional reasoning. The author includes many problems at the end of the story. Readers can be challenged to pose questions about their own lives and to find ways of answering these questions.
Geringer, Laura. (1985). A three hat day.New York: Harper Collins.
R.R. Pottle the Third comes from a family of collectors. His father collected canes and his mother collected umbrellas. R.R. Pottle the Third collects hats. Sometimes he wears two or three hats at once, depending on his mood. He eventually falls in love with a lady who also loves hats. This warm and funny book is appropriate for grades K-2 and 3 - 5.
About the mathematics: The book introduces children to problem solving about order and combinations. Children might investigate how many ways R.R. Pottle could wear the same two hats, the same three hats, or the same four hats.
Schwartz, David M. (2001). On beyond a million: An amazing math journey.
New York: Dragonfly Books.
The author describes very large numbers like millions, billions, trillions with colorful illustrations and many clever examples. Appropriate for grades 3-5 and 6-8.
About the mathematics: Large numbers are constructed using the base 10 system and emphasizing powers of 10. Grouping is explored and the efficiency of grouping by 10's is emphasized.
Tang, Greg. (2001). The grapes of math. New York: Scholastic.
In this wonderfully illustrated book, sets of objects are each accompanied by a riddle. The riddle asks children to count the sets by grouping them. Hints for grouping are given in each riddle. For example, four columns of four fish each are displayed diagonally across a page. Another page shows a four by four square of ants with three additional ants somewhere on the page. This book is appropriate for all grade levels and will be enjoyed by both adults and children.
About the mathematics: Children learn to think creatively, problem solve, recognize patterns, group numbers, and learn number relationships. For example, on one page they find different ways to make 10, by adding 5 + 5, 6 + 4, and 7 + 3.
Tang, Greg. (2002). Math for All Seasons.New York: Scholastic.
This book is written for students in grades 3 - 5. Readers solve pattern problems by using helpful riddles.
About the mathematics: This bright and colorful book presents various patterns with one or more pieces missing. Readers are asked to count “how many” using the hints given on the opposite page. The book teaches children to problem solve by looking for patterns and being open to new ideas.
Schwartz, David M. (1985). How much is a million? New York: Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard.
Very large numbers, like one million and one billion, are used throughout the book. Many questions are asked and answered, like how large a goldfish bowl would have to be to hold one million goldfish, or the time it would take to count to from one to one million. Appropriate for grades 3-5 and 6-8.
About the mathematics: The book does an excellent job of visualizing large numbers, posing problems (how long to count to one million) and then formulating mathematical solutions that children can understand.
CHAPTER TWO
Anno, Mitsumasa. (1982). Anno's counting house. New York: Philomel.
Ten people move from a completely furnished house to a previously empty house, one at a time. As each person moves they bring their possessions. This book is appropriate for grades K-2.
About the mathematics: The author suggests that children use counters to represent the individual people moving from one house to the next. Two different colored counters may be used, one for boys and one for girls, to find out the total number of boys and girls who are in the old house or the new house. As each person in the story moves from one house to the next, children can act out the story by moving their counters. This allows children to connect the people in the story with the counters that represent them. Children can also find that the total number of people remains constant, whether they are in the old house or the new house. For example, at the beginning of the story, 10 people are in the old house and 0 are in the new. Then 9 people are in the old house and 1 in the new house. Then, 8 people are in the old house and 2 in the new house. After each move, the number of people remains constant. If we subtract a quantity and then add it back, the sum remains the same. This demonstrates that addition and subtraction are inverse operations
Mora, Pat. (1996). Uno, Dos, Tres: One, Two, Three.New York: Clarion Books.
This is a bilingual counting book that cdelebrates Mexican heritage, by following a family outing at a Mexican market.
About the mathematics. As with all good counting books, this book illustrates the one-to-one correspondence between numbers and objects, relating number names to the quantities they represent, in English and Spanish.
Zaslavsky, Claudia. (1999). Count on your fingers African style. New York: Black Butterfly Books.
Finger counting is described in detail while children learn about African culture.
This book is appropriate for grades 3-5 and 6-8.
About the mathematics: Children learn different systems of finger counting. This can make them more aware of our place value system.
Additional Books of Interest for Chapter Two
Anno, Mitsumasa. (1977). Anno's counting book. New York: Crowell.
Two buildings, two evergreen trees, two children, two trucks, two o'clock on a clock and other sets of two are all illustrated on two facing pages of this picture book. The left facing page also has a blank 10 strip with two colored blocks and the right facing page has a large number two. On the next two facing pages, three buildings, three evergreen trees, three children, three trucks, three o'clock on a clock, and other sets of three are shown. Again, the left facing page has three colored blocks on a 10 strip and the right facing page has a large number three. This pattern continues for the numbers 0 through 12. Also depicted are the change in seasons by month, from January to December. This book is appropriate for grades K-2.
About the mathematics: The fine illustrations challenge children to find as many sets of each number as they can on the given pages. Anno's illustrations show the relationship between concrete objects and the numerals that represent them. As children find sets and relate them to numbers, they can use counting blocks to represent each relationship. Children can identify place value, too. Anno's illustrations use an outline of 10 blocks to represent each number. For the number 2, two of the blocks have been filled in with another color. For the number 10, all of the blocks are filled in with another color. And for the number 12, one group of 10 blocks is filled in and 2 blocks from another stack are filled.
Carle, Eric. 1972). Rooster's off to see the world.New York: Aladdin.
A rooster decides that he wants to travel. As he sets out on his trip, he meets other animals that decide to go along with him: two cats, three frogs, four turtles, and five fish. As night falls, all the animals decide to return to their homes. This book is appropriate for grades K-2.
About the mathematics: Several mathematics topics are illustrated in this story, including counting, addition, subtraction, sequences, and patterns. Children can calculate how many animals traveled together. They can add the number of animals by using traditional addition, counters, or by drawing the animals. They can identify the pattern as an increasing sequence (1,2,3,4,5) when the animals went off to see the world or a decreasing sequence (5,4,3,2,1) when the animals returned to their homes in reverse order. The story also offers the opportunity for meaningful discussion of mathematics with young children. As illustrated in Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, when one class of children was asked to find the total number of animals that traveled, a number of answers were explored. Some children counted 15 animals, some counted 25 ( by including the fireflies illustrated on one page), another child counted 0, because all of the animals returned to their homes.
Friedman, Aileen. (1994). The king's commissioners. New York: Scholastic.
A King loses count of everything, including how many commissioners he has. He orders two of his commissioners to count the rest of the royal commissioners. One counts by two's, the other counts by five's. The King's daughter counts the commissioners by 10's and shows her father that all three answers are equivalent. Appropriate for grades K-2.
About the mathematics: The book shows the importance and meaning of grouping by two's, five's, or 10's.
Haskins, Jim. (1989). Count your way through Korea. Minneapolis:Carolrhoda Books.
In this, one of a series of similar counting books by the same author, readers learn about Korean culture while counting in English and in Korean.
About the mathematics: These books illustrate one-to-one correspondences between the numbers and the objects illustrated on each page. However, they are not meant as early counting books. They are for older readers and the cultural knowledge is as important as the mathematical counting. Suggested grade levels are 3-5 and 6-8.
Kusugak, Michael K. (1996). My Arctic 1,2,3. Buffalo, N.Y: Firefly Books.
In this Inuit counting book, the Arctic way of life is described as numbers are related to objects. For example, the number one is illustrated by one polar bear. The number two is illustrated by two ringed seals. This is another example of a counting book that relates content as well as counting. Both the climate of the Arctic and the animals used as illustrations are described at the end of the story. Appropriate for grades K-2.
About the mathematics: The numbers 1 through 10, 20, 100, and 1,000,000 are depicted through illustrations.
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. (1999). The history of counting. New York: Morrow.
The development of counting is chronicled, from societies that do not use numbers to Hindu-Arabic numerals. The reading level is appropriate for grades 6-8.
About the mathematics: Children learn that mathematics is used all over the world by different cultures in ways that are meaningful to the needs of the culture.
The need for efficient systems of counting, including place value and decimals, is explained.
Feelings, Muriel. (1971). Moja means one. New York. Dial.
Children learn to count in English and Swahili while learning about East African life in this award-winning book. For example, on one page the number 2 appears with the Swahili word for 2 (mbili) next to it. The facing page shows two children playing Mankala, a board game that uses complex strategies. This is an example of a book that teaches counting as well as content, in this case, the geography and culture of East Africa. It is appropriate for grades K-2.
About the mathematics: Children relate objects to numbers: one Mt.Kilimanjaro, two people to play Mankala, etc.
CHAPTER THREE
Birch, David, (1988). The King’s Chessboard. New York: Dial Books
In ancient India, a man had done a service for the King. The King insists on rewarding the man and the man asks for one grain of rice, doubled each day, for each square of the chessboard.
About the mathematics
The story in the book illustrates an exponential function, 2n, in a realistic way.
Nagda, Anna. (2005).Learning to Subtract from Hua Mei and Mei Sheng.New York: Henry Holt.
This charming book was written with cooperation of the San Diego Zoo. Through pictures and charts it follows the development of two adorable baby pandas.
About the mathematics
The book introduces real world subtraction problems based on the development and growth of the baby Pandas, helping children see how subtraction and other arithmetic operations can help them interpret their world.
Neuschwander, Cindy. (1998). Amanda Bean’s amazing dream: A mathematical story.New York: Scholastic.
Amanda loves to count but does not think she needs to multiply even though her teacher says multiplication is faster. A dream changes Amanda’s mind. This book is appropriate for grades 3-5.
About the mathematics: The illustrations show multiplication as repeated addition and as arrays of rows and columns. For example, one illustration shows eight sheep each holding five balls of yarn. In another illustration, Amanda sees three shelves of three cakes each and two shelves each holding four loaves of bread. There are lots of real world examples of things to count and efficient ways of counting. The book is also excellent for statistics because it illustrates different things to collect data about.
Pinczes, Eleanor J. (1993). One hundred hungry ants.Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
100 hungry ants are on their way to a picnic in single-file. The littlest ant says they are moving too slowly and suggests they form two rows of 50 ants each to arrive more quickly. The littlest ant says they are still moving too slowly and suggests 4 rows of 25 then 5 rows of 20 and finally 10 rows of 10. By the time the ants arrive at the picnic, all the food is gone. This book is appropriate for grades 3-5.
About the Mathematics: Multiplication, division, and factors are illustrated by the array model.
Additional Books of Interest for Chapter Three
Anno, Mitsumasa and Anno, Masaichiro. (1983). Anno's mysterious multiplying jar. New York: Penguin Putnam.
A blue and white porcelain jar holds mysteries. Inside the jar one finds an island on a sea. The island contains two countries. Each country contains three mountains and each mountain contains four kingdoms. Within each kingdom there are five villages. This progression of images continues throughout the book until the number 10. Grades 3-5 can benefit from the multiplication presented in the book and grades 6-8 can study the concepts presented in greater depth.