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Sir Cumference Series These books are exceptionally clever, so much fun and they pack a lot of math into a picture book format. The series teaches everything from fractions (Sir Cumference and the Fraction Faire) to Place Value (Sir Cumference and all the kings 10s). Following the adventures of a the knight Sir Cumference and his many adventures, these books are legitimately fun- they don’t’ sacrifice story for the math concept. They stories designed to introduce or reinforce an existing math concept rather than teach mathematics in depth. Each math concept is legitimately used in “real life” (well if real life includes a journey to a dragon infested island in order to prove your bravery before being knighted in a medieval times) and I appreciate the introduction within the context of practical application. |
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The Grapes of Math (and other books by Greg Tang) I’m not sure what it is about Mathematicians and Puns, but like the Sir Cumference books above, Greg (Gregory) Tang’s books are filled with plenty of puns and even more math. These differ from the Sir Cumference books in that they are more about the math than the story, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that these books aren’t fun and readable. These books are all about how we think about numbers, and while many are geared towards younger readers his multiplication book (The Best Of Times) is on my must-have list for kids learning the times tables. |
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Counting on Katherine Kids who love math will find themselves relating to Katherine Johnson, as her love of math propels her to a career as a computer at NASA helping to launch John Glen into space. Your math loving kids may also enjoy discovering that the original computers were actually people, mathematicians who’s job it was to “compute” large and complicated numbers. Even when computer machines begin to replace human computers John Glen insisted that Katherine double check the machines before he trusted the calculations that were supposed to be returning him to earth after his orbit. If you enjoy this and want to learn more. Katherine Johnson was one of the three women that the book (and movie) Hidden Figured is based on, and there is a Young Reader edition of that book available as well. |
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Grandfather Tang’s Story This book is all about Tangrams, the math puzzle in which 7 shapes are arranged to create all diffent pictures. In this book the grandfather shares a story, which then leads to a series of figures which is to be completed using tangrams. I’m sure you could read the story just for fun (its good enough to stand alone) but where is the fun in that. If you don’t have a set of tangrams at home (hint: they’re often available in the dollar spot at Target) you can find a printable pattern online and cut out your own. These puzzles are surprisingly challenging and a good spatial reasoning logic puzzle. |