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Overview
NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Greg Tang challenges kids to solve problems creatively while introducing art history.In his most ground-breaking book since THE BEST OF TIMES (Fall 2002), Greg Tang underscores the importance of four basic rules in problem-solving. Keeping an open mind, looking for unusual number combinations, using multiple skills (like subtracting to add) and looking for patterns, will guarantee any child success in math. In MATH-TERPIECES, Tang continues to challenge kids with his innovative approach to math, and uses art history to expand his vision for creative problem-solving.
The author of "The Grapes of Math" challenges kids to solve mathematical problems creatively while introducing art history in his latest math book.
Synopsis
In his most ground-breaking book since THE BEST OF TIMES (Fall 2002), Greg Tang underscores the importance of four basic rules in problem-solving. Keeping an open mind, looking for unusual number combinations, using multiple skills (like subtracting to add) and looking for patterns, will guarantee any child success in math. In MATH-TERPIECES, Tang continues to challenge kids with his innovative approach to math, and uses art history to expand his vision for creative problem-solving.
Publishers Weekly
Greg Tang presents the fifth book in the series begun with The Grapes of Math, Math-terpieces, illus. by Greg Paprocki. Under a reproduction of a well-known painting, a rhyming text gives information about the artist and poses a mathematical challenge to group objects in various ways; for example, "April Showers" features a Renoir painting titled The Umbrellas, and asks readers to group different numbers of umbrellas to make nine. An inventive way. Kids can bone up on their addition skills while getting an introduction to art history. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewMath wizard Greg Tang presents an artfully awesome method for learning addition in this colorful picture book illustrated by Greg Paprocki.
From Impressionism to Pop Art, Tang combines classic pieces of fine art with arithmetic to teach kids that grouping objects together means adding faster and easier. In "April Showers," Renoir's painting The Umbrellas provides the visual eye-candy -- along with Paprocki's groups of umbrellas in Renoir's style -- as the author challenges kids to "group UMBRELLAS to make 9, FIVE clever ways would be quite fine." Similarly, "Square Deal" features Piet Mondrian and tells readers that "7's made from SQUARES are great, the different groupings number EIGHT," while Jackson Pollock's Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) shows children that "you may find beauty of a different kind" as "9's are made with all these SPATTERS, finding SEVEN is what matters!" As usual, Tang also provides an introductory note about the purpose of book along with an answer key in back.
Another Tang math book that brings pizzazz to problems, Math-terpieces will have kids and parents adding like masters! This art/math lesson is bright and simple to absorb, exposing readers to new ways of seeing and thinking. It will certainly help make those homework assignments a breeze. Matt Warner
From the Publisher
School Library Journal(August 1, 2003; 0-439-44388-1)
Gr 1-5-In his fifth visual math adventure, Tang uses the artwork of 12 famous painters as an aid in developing problem-solving skills through grouping. Each spread features a quality reproduction on the left side. The poem underneath it highlights an item in the picture and presents a math query. For example, on the spread titled "Dancing Shoes," illustrated with Edgar Degas's Ballet Rehearsal on Stage, readers are asked to combine the colorful pictures of varying numbers of ballet shoes on the opposite page into several groups of seven. ("Can you make 7 with these SHOES?/THREE clever ways earn rave reviews!") Clearly written solutions to these exercises are given at the end of the book along with art definitions and brief explanations. This math-concept book is far more appealing than most.-Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Publishers Weekly
(July 28, 2003; 0-439-44388-1)
Greg Tang presents the fifth book in the series begun with The Grapes of Math, Math-terpieces, illus. by Greg Paprocki. Under a reproduction of a well-known painting, a rhyming text gives information about the artist and poses a mathematical challenge to group objects in various ways; for example, "April Showers" features a Renoir painting titled The Umbrellas, and asks readers to group different numbers of umbrellas to make nine. An inventive way. Kids can bone up on their addition skills while getting an introduction to art history. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Booklist July 1st, 2003
Tang and Paprocki, who also wrote and illustrated The Best Of Times (2002) and Math Appeal (2003), again challenge children to take a playful approach to learning Math, using elements from famous paintings by anists such as Matisse, Mondrian, and Warhol. For instance, one double-page spread has a reproduction of Dalf's painting The Pers,.stence of Memory and the verse, "Is it a dream or is it rea1? / It's hard to know when art's surreal. / Dali's clocks once so precise- / now they're melting just like ice. / Find SEVEN ways to make an 8 / group the CLOCKS, it's getting late!" Paprocki's more colorful versions of melting clocks are grouped on the facing page, and the groups can be combined in seven different ways that add up to eight clocks. Children drawn to the gamelike element will undoubtedly become more familiar with the paintings, though the main point is combining the sets of objects. This book provides an attractive setting for that activity. -Carolyn Phelan
Kirkus Reviews June 1st , 2003
The author of several other highly praised math books has another winner in this combination of math and art history. Each two-page spread contains the reproduction of a famous painting identified by artist and date, a series of rhymed couplets describing the painting and proposing a problem, and a series of objects from the painting that are to be grouped and counted in various ways. A Monet water lily painting is accompanied by several groups of water lilies, and instructions to "Try grouping LILIES to make 8, / FOUR smart ways would be just great!" Dali's Persistence of Memory is accompanied by a verse entitled "Time Warp," which includes these lines: "is it a dream or is it real? It's hard to know when art's surreal." Attractive and intriguing.
Publishers Weekly
Greg Tang presents the fifth book in the series begun with The Grapes of Math, Math-terpieces, illus. by Greg Paprocki. Under a reproduction of a well-known painting, a rhyming text gives information about the artist and poses a mathematical challenge to group objects in various ways; for example, "April Showers" features a Renoir painting titled The Umbrellas, and asks readers to group different numbers of umbrellas to make nine. An inventive way. Kids can bone up on their addition skills while getting an introduction to art history. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
This is far and away the best of Greg Tang's marvelous series of math-oriented puzzle books. Here is the idea: How many ways can you make 7 by adding any combination of the numbers, 2, 3, 4, and 5? That's a pleasant enough puzzle for older kids. It is engrossing for younger ones, and the mental muscles it exercises are critical to developing early math skills. But the best part is this: Tang has placed the puzzles in the context of works of art. Here is an example under Degas' Ballet Rehearsal on Stage (1874): "A ballerina strikes a pose/ another rests her weary toes./ Edgar Degas liked to portray/ the varied scenes of the ballet/ Can you make 7 with these SHOES?/ Three clever ways earn rave reviews!" On the opposite page are ballet slippers in groups of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The illustrations are great, the puzzles interesting, the math engaging, and the artists included range from Degas to Picasso to Mondrian. 2003, Scholastic, Ages 4 to 8.— Michael Chabin