Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book by Stephen Savage has amazingly clear illustrations that play with light and shadow and silhouette. The text is pleasantly simple. Rhyming, but not too rhymey. Know what I mean?
I have read it to Jill a dozen times, and I could read it a dozen more. She loves to find the black cat on every page. In addition to being a counting book, it's a fun Halloween read.
The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman is the picture book biography of the famous mathematician, Erdos (pronounced Air-dish). He loved math so much, he missed out on learning some basic life skills.
When he leaves home for the first time, he can't butter his bread or do laundry or pay bills.
No worries. The mathematicians he visits take care of things for him so he can spend his whole life doing math.
Favorite part: Erdos refers to the children of his friends as Epsilons and the delightful pictures by LeUyen Pham show children wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the Greek letter Epsilon. Yes, Jill and Polly would look adorable in Epsilon t-shirts. Who on Etsy can grant this wish?
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky is not for the pre-school set. Edmund and I learned from it though. Question: If Erastothenes knew the earth was round and measured it like 2000+ years ago, how come Columbus's critics didn't get the memo by 1492?
Anyway, I find it fascinating that someone figured out and actually got a crew of people on board to measure the circumference of the earth BY HAND! Or actually, by foot. They weren't off by much either!
I'm a visual learner, so it makes sense that I love seeing math in nature. Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature by Susan C. Campbell explains the Fibonacci sequence and shows us brilliant photos of the sequence in God's creation all around us. God is so smart.
Laura, WWRW linker upper, wrote about another Fibonacci picture book last week, over at her space called "To Say Nothing of the Sideshow." Of course, I have to check out The Rabbit Problem myself now, as well as On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein which popped up on one of my Amazon searches.
I love that Amazon knows me and gives me book recs. By the way, I'm an Amazon Associate and I use affiliate links. I got a nice little gift card from Amazon recently. Thanks for clicking and looking and sometimes buying.
And as always, thank you for linking up!
Looooove your math book rec!! One of my fave ever is The Lib Who Meas the Earth! My dh is an Earth Sci teacher and he reads it to his class every year......amazing story! I just love teaching math with lit and I'm always on the lookout for more titles....I've not heard of a few you rec! Thank you! Do you know Cindy Neuschwander? You probably do...if not here's a post I wrote on circumference in which I share a few activities, inc one of her math books.: http://campfiresandcleats.blogspot.com/2014/08/baking-and-literature-and-pi-oh-my-6.html. I do think you'll enjoy her math titles!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting!!
God bless.
That was my first thought too! I love Sir Cumference and all of Cindy's titles! So glad others enjoy them too.
DeleteMy girls loved The Boy Who Loved Math--and I second the t-shirt idea. :) My sister-in-law's name is Elizabeth, but when my brother met her in college (in one of their math classes, as they were both math majors), he started calling her "E" because she didn't like any typical nicknames for Elizabeth. She said, "E? Like...2.7?" and the name stuck. We still call her 2.7. :)
ReplyDeleteHave you read One Grain of Rice by Demi? That's a pretty beautiful, interesting math book/folk tale that I've been meaning to find for my girls.
A second vote for One Grain of Rice. We all enjoyed the content, and Demi's books are just so dang beautiful!
DeleteI'm not aware of any solid, contemporary accounts from the late 15th century where the idea that people thought the world wasn't round occur. Common people may have believed such but no one with a minimum of education believed the world was anything other than spherical.
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of propaganda from the so-called Enlightenment up through the our time that contrasts the world of "medieval ignorance and superstition" with the glorious Modern era made possible by, in Carlyle's 19th century turn of phrase, "gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion". So far as I know, that's the source of the idea that many of us were taught in history classes that people thought the earth was flat until Columbus proved otherwise.
There was disagreement in the 15th century as to how large a sphere, though. Some held to the calculations of the Greeks; others to calculations from other sources. Lots of discussion and disputation about "wasted space if the earth is as big as the Greeks say" and such as like that.
Columbus was actually trying to determine, "Can we get to India by sailing West?" Spain was willing to fund such an expedition because the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks controlled the Med and the Portugese had the route which circumnavigated the southern coast of Africa. And if the world was as small as some scholars thought it was, it's would be a long journey but not impossible.
It turned out that the ancient Greeks were pretty darn close but the "small earth" idea still allowed for just enough distance that Columbus and company did hit the Caribbean about where they thought India ought to be.
The real history is utterly fascinating, and the logs and journals from Columbus' voyages can still be read (if you're Latin is up to snuff).
This line of errant pedantry brought to you by Laura, The Ringmistress' husband. :)
And thanks for the listing of more math books. They're becoming very popular in our house.
Some of these are now on my wishlist
ReplyDeleteJust awarded you:)
http://sevenlittleaustralians.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/ive-been-awarded-twice.html
Oh man, John Paul would LOVE that boy who loved math book - it reminds me of him a little too much, honestly...
ReplyDeleteJust got my link up late! These books sounds like ones my kids would love. We have a child whose interest in science precludes learning ordinary social and life skills. :)
ReplyDelete