WWRW: Reading About Math

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!

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A Little Paranormal for October

A couple PG ghost stories that are both well written and kid-friendly are Mary Downing Hahn's The Old Willis Place and Richard Peck's The Ghost Belonged to Me. My 2007 review of The Old Willis Place can be found here.

As for me and mine, we will be watching some scary (not horror) movies such as M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, and Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn. Well, at least the twelve and older crowd anyway.

What are you reading and watching to get your spook on?

October Favorites

Here are my picks for October:

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi tell the adventures of the Grace children after they move into a creepy, old, Victorian mansion. They find their ancestor, Arthur Spiderwick's field guide to the unseen fairy world and discover who is behind the mischief in their new home.

Sadly, the Grace family has suffered through divorce and the father is absent. Jared's behavioral problems at school are linked to his anger about the divorce. The novels, however, are mostly concerned with mysterious hobgoblins, pookahs, griffins, and elves. These books are short and easy to read, suitable for 3rd or 4th grade.
Recommended with caution regarding the divorce issue.

The Sisters Grimm is another series about fairies, and also fairytale characters come to life. Read my previous review here.

Into the Woods by Lyn Gardner, is a novel about several fairytale characters: the Pied Piper, Little Red Riding Hood, Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty and others. One adventure leads into another as the heroine strives to rescue and reunite her family. Highly recommended.

Lastly, but most definitely a gem worth owning, is Olivia and the Little Way, by Nancy Carabio Belanger. Belanger makes the message of St. Therese of Lisieux relevant to children today through the plight of Olivia Thomas, recent transplant from Texas to Michigan. Eager to make new friends, Olivia falls in with the popular crowd, excluding some of the kinder people in her class. She learns the error of her ways, but rather than turn her back on the snobby girls, she strives to teach them about the Little Way as well! Olivia is a wonderful character, sinful, yet repentant.
This story is so appropriate for October, October 1st being the feast of St. Therese the Little Flower, and for November, the month to celebrate all saints, or even December, as a gift. But I digress... Truly, this is one of the best saint stories for children that I have ever read. My daughters loved this book, and I even caught my 13 year old son reading it. Highly Recommended!