Booklist

Spring 2002

From flashing fireworks and blowing leaves to multiple scoops of ice cream, a bright, clear, computer-generated illustration sets the scene in each double-page spread, and a playful rhyme asks a counting question about the picture ("Can you count up all the scoops?" "Just how many leaves are there?"). With each riddle, there's also a clue to the math ("Try counting in groups of two"), and the answers at the back not only give the correct number but also show how to get the answer faster than by counting one by one. As they look at the pictures with an adult, children will enjoy learning the quick tricks of arithmetic, especially multiplication ("if it's symmetrical, count one and double it") and discovering the sets and patterns, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal, in the world around them. This is math, not by rote but in the things children do.

-- Hazel Rochman

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