School Library Journal

March 2002

Another calculated success from the creators of The Grapes of Math (Scholastic, 2001). Each spread features a crisp, bright illustration with a rhymed couplet that poses a counting task and gives a suggested strategy. The 16 riddles take readers through the seasons beginning with tulips and hatching chicks in springtime and ending with snowflakes and gift boxes in winter.

This ambitious work encourages creative problem solving in several ways. Youngsters learn to pair or group items to make adding easier, subtract to add (such as two 5s are 10 minus 2 equals 8), and to look for patterns and symmetries that provide further shortcuts to addition. Since most children are inclined to count items one by one, Tang's book will present them with a new tactic: recognizing visual groupings (twos, threes, and fives) to make adding faster and more accurate, and provide them with some training in it.

Another plus is that the strategies learned early in the book are used more than once, thereby reinforcing the skills. Solutions are illustrated and explained at the back of the book. Though only one is offered for each scenario, it is possible that readers might find alternate, yet equally valid groupings. Math's appealing computer artwork, poetry, holiday and seasonal themes, and challenges add up to a winning combination. (Grades 1-3)

- Barbara Auerbach, New York City Schools

Back to Seasons Reviews