(Further) developing mathematical thinking through children's books 🧮

Spotlight On: Math: Part 2

I originally published this post on February 3, 2022. I’ve heavily edited, updated, and added to it here, so even if you received it then, it’s also different now. This is part two of two.

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ICYMI: Part 1 of this Spotlight On: Math went out last week:

Developing mathematical thinking through children's books 🧮

Here’s more where that came from.

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1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker (2012)

This sweet and delightful counting book for the littlest readers brings numbers to life through the antics of peas — yes, peas. Starting from 1 to 20 and then counting by tens up to 100, the easy rhythm of this text is not only a pleasure to read aloud but helps kiddos 3-5 remember what they’re (totally surreptitiously) learning. And Baker’s bright digital illustrations full of lots of pea activity — and hidden details, like a ladybug on each page — make this a cheerful and engaging read.

For more like this — which I strongly recommend if you have children ages 0-5 — check out my Spotlight On: Counting Books.

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Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes (2011)

You might think geometry is one of those math concepts that small children aren’t ready for — perhaps because you’re thinking of capital-G Geometry, which for me brings up some severe quadratic-equation-related shudders — but in truth, we teach even the smallest of babes geometry right from the get-go in the form of shape recognition, which begins with hanging a mobile above a crib or changing table, continues into playing with soft blocks, progresses with shape puzzles (or putting circular objects into circular holes, etc.) and never really stops.

Reading books about shapes is valid math learning, and shape titles are an essential part of any math book library.

The best is, by far and away, Swirl by Swirl, where the unmatchable Sidman explains all the things spiral is, alongside Krommes’ rich one-of-a-kind scratchboard illustrations that highlight the many places they can be found in nature. If there is a better — or more beguiling — book out there about this specific shape, I haven’t found it.

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Monkey for Sale by Sanna Stanley (2002)

When Luzolo heads to the market with a five-franc coin, her parents remind her to spend wisely. After buying nail polish and snacks with her friend Kiese, they hear someone selling a monkey and plead for it, but Mama Lusufu won’t give it away — she needs the money for a new water pot. This inspires the girls to begin a clever chain of bargain and barter throughout the market, until finally they return with a water pot for Mama Lusufu, and are able to return the monkey to the jungle where it belongs.

Stanley’s story is interesting and makes clear for even the youngest children the ideas of money and general exchange, which can be fairly abstract for kids, especially in an era of debit/credit cards and buying things online. Ditto her colorful, unique etched and hand-painted chine collé on mulberry paper illustrations (I love the scene when Luzolo and Kiese are painting one another’s fingernails). This is an excellent and thought-provoking book best enjoyed by elementary-aged kiddos.

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Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe, illustrated by Barbara McClintock (2018)

An oft-overlooked category of math books is historical and cultural math, including biographies of mathematicians, scientists, and others who use math as a tool of discovery — reading about people who love math is a way into loving (or at least better understanding) math oneself.

Bardoe’s marvelous biography of 18th-century mathematician Sophie Germain has it all: fascinating ideas (predicting patterns of vibrations), struggle (being taken seriously as a female mathematician in her time), courage (refusing to back down), and eventually, triumph (winning France’s prestigious Academy of Sciences award, the first woman in history to do so). Coupled with McClintock’s outstanding illustrations — made in a departure from her usual media, using markers, gouache, and collage — this is as near a perfect example of the genre as one can find.

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Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Karen Barbour (1997)

Beyond my love of poetry (and maniacal insistence that it’s important for children), there’s also the helpful fact that math poetry is an easy, zero-pressure way of showing that math is all around us.

Case in point: here, poets such as Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Janet S. Wong, Karla Kuskin, Ilo Orleans, and many more offer a plethora of short, fun poems on topics as diverse as numbers, fractions, calculators, and Pythagoras. Barbour’s smorgasbord of colorful gouache illustrations is a snappy counterpart to this unique math book, which makes real-world connections anyone of elementary age (and their grownups) can relate to.

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Playing With Math: Stories From Math Circles, Homeschoolers & Passionate Teachers, edited by Sue VanHattum (2015)

If there was one book that singlehandedly changed my perspective of and approach to math for and with my own children, it’s this one, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a book of personal essays from people running math circles, working in classrooms, and stewarding homeschools about how to transform current math practices, do math, celebrate math, and share math in community.

Trust me, I was skeptical, too. (In truth my willingness to even read a book about math was shocking, but there is no motivation like the motivation not to screw up your kid when you’ve decided to be solely responsible for their education, even for a short while.) But I was hooked the minute I read in VanHattum’s introduction her frustration as a classroom teacher:

I love teaching math, yet throughout my twenty-some years of teaching I’ve struggled with the fact that what I want to teach is problem solving but what I do teach most of the time is how to follow recipes (here’s how you find the slope or the vertex, here’s how you factor, and so on). Until recently, I never felt I had made much progress in solving this dilemma… in the years since [the discovery of the community that spawned the writing of this book], my life has been full of math-play adventures. I’m still learning how to bring that spirit to my students’ lives.

I wanted — I still want — to bring that spirit to my children’s lives, despite my own rocky past with math, and this book showed me how. Furthermore, I took it to heart when VanHattum mentioned repeatedly that my own feelings about math have the biggest impact on whether or not my children like math, and even whether or not they excel at it. (I vowed then and there to never, ever say, “I hate math,” in front of my kids, nor to share with them how much I struggled with math in my own school days. I have not once broken my vow.)

And, I did something to change my feelings: I gave myself permission to have math-play adventures of my own. I ordered a Vedic mathematics teacher’s manual because I wanted to teach myself the ten-point circle. I spent an amount of money I will never reveal on polydrons so I could build platonic solids.

This book is accessible, easy to read in pieces (though I devoured it all at once), and will, at the very least, rearrange — maybe even radically change — what and how you think about math.

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I hope this issue — and last week’s, as well — has helped you find some math readers to explore with the children in your life, whether they’re still on your lap, next to you at breakfast or bedtime, or on the rug in your classroom or library. Remember that reading about math is math learning. And math is for everyone, no matter your age.

Sarah