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Math Potatoes: Mind-Stretching Brain Food

Name: Math Potatoes: Mind-Stretching Brain Food
Author: Tang
ISBN: 9780439443906

by Tang, Harry Briggs

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Overview

Readers who have graduated from THE GRAPES OF MATH will find new, more advanced math challenges.

Greg Tang is back with his bestselling approach to addition and subtraction: problem solving. By solving challenges that encourage kids to "group" numbers rather than memorize formulas, even the most reluctant math learners are inspired to see math in a whole new way! Math Potatoes is full of Tang and Briggs' trademark humor, wit, and extraordinary creativity. Tang has proven over and over that math can be fun, and this new addition to his acclaimed series of mind-stretching math riddles is sure to be another hit.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

Familiar friends escort readers back to school. The team behind The Grapes of Math offers a seventh title, Math Potatoes: Mind-Stretching Brain Food by Greg Tang, illus. by Harry Briggs. Rhyming couplets once again help kids understand math through strategies such as grouping in patterns. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

Booklist 5/1/5-05 The seventh in Tang's math series, which includes The Grapes of Math (2000),this picture book uses all kinds of visual tricks to demonstrate how to make arithmetic faster and easier. On each double-page spread, a rhyming verse has fun with a variety of subjects. Most rhymes are about foods-including pickles, potatoes, and "flat- jacks'7--and the clear, bright, computer-generated pictures are as playful as the words. This goes far beyond the usual simple counting book. The games are complex, the visuals are tricky, and although the rhyme seems straightforward ("Instead of adding row by row/ Columns are the way to go"), it requires readers to think carefully about adding, subtracting, and multiplying. "Imagine eight in every row / Just subtract and you will know." The spacious, illustrated answer pages at the back explain the puzzles, which will be fun for classroom use as well as for kids trying to find shortcuts in the counting jungle.
-Hazel Rochma

Publishers Weekly

Children's Literature

This is the newest title from the author of the acclaimed The Grapes of Math. With intricate games and cleverly-designed illustrations, readers are challenged to solve various math problems. Each problem is presented as a spread. A poem on the left-hand side introduces the challenge. The right-hand side features a strong and often humorous illustration of everything from musical notes to a spider web to penguins as the way to the solution. Children are definitely encouraged to think "out of the box" in order to come up with the correct answers. Tang, in his introduction, says that his aim is get kids to look for smarter, easier solutions and he certainly meets his objective. The answers to each problem are fully explained in the back of the book. Teachers looking for a tool to make math more interesting will surely be happy with this book. 2005, Scholastic, Ages 9 to 12.
—Sylvia Firth

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-Tang's seventh entry in a series that includes The Grapes of Math (2001) and Math-terpieces (2003, both Scholastic) is another winner. Each spread includes a poem consisting of neatly rhymed couplets that first set a scene ("I gaze into the evening sky,/Think great thoughts and wonder why") and concludes with a hint or suggestion as to how the objects on the opposing page might most efficiently be grouped to arrive at a sum ("When you look up to the heavens,/Try to think in groups of sevens!"). There are no overt patterns so that, as Tang says in his author's note, children are challenged "to combine numbers in smart ways, not just obvious ways." The book concludes with clear diagrams and succinct explanations providing the solutions. Briggs's computer-generated art is crisp, clear, and delightfully quirky. For example, "Sock Hop" features a loafer on guitar, work boots on drums, and a high-heeled pump on keyboard. Puzzle-loving kids will pick this up on their own, and teachers could pair it with Jon Scieszka's Math Curse (Viking, 1995) for an energizing departure from the standard math lesson.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The seventh in a line of verse math-terpieces that began with Grapes of Math (2001), this offers 16 problem-solving shortcuts that involve grouping numbers or items. Tang not only provides answers and methods in a closing key, he is generous with hints. Opposite digitally worked, color-coded arrays of anywhere from 30 to 148 stars, sea shells, spiders, pickles, the titular potatoes, playing cards and the like, his verses open with a pair of lively introductory couplets, set the problem with a third, then suggest an approach in the fourth: "Can you add up these poor souls / For whom the bell already tolls? / In groups of ten you'll hear their cries, / 'Please don't turn us into fries!' " Even numerically challenged readers can count on coming away with some time and labor saving techniques for toting things up. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)