Let's Graph

Children's Literature

Simple text and full-color photographs illustrate the concept of graphing, which is the use of a chart that represents numbers as pictures, a key math concept. In this sturdily-bound book, a familiar classroom activity—a fundraising bake sale—is used to explain graphing, as well as to introduce two different types of graphs: the bar graph and pie chart. At the start of the book, kids are asked: how can they keep track of how much is sold? Readers are also shown how graphs make things easier to understand and compare. Includes a brief "words to know"/index, a complete word count of the text, and an intervention level ranking. A wonderful addition to classroom or library shelves. 2004, Yellow Umbrella Books/Capstone Press, Ages 6 to 8.
—Dianne Ochiltree

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-In the first title, each spread shows pictures of arctic creatures, with a problem in addition included in the text. "Female caribou live with their babies. Male caribou often live alone. Add the caribou: 3 + 1 = 4." Students can count the animals in the large, color photographs and connect their counting with the equation. Chickens describes how to count by twos, fives, and tens. For example, one page shows a photo of a starfish, with the text noting that it has five arms. The facing page shows 3 photos of the starfish: "5, 10, 15-you know what to do!" Rhyming adds to the book's appeal. The third title includes illustrations of bar and pie graphs. The text describes having a bake sale and determining which treat sold the most. The different graph types are explained, using photos of cookies, doughnuts, and pies in conjunction with them to make easy connections for readers. Although these titles fill a need for very simple math books for beginning readers, they will probably appeal more to teachers than to children.-Karen Stuppi, Harmony Elementary School, Middletown, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.