Connecting Math & Poetry:
A Winning Sum

by Greg Tang

[Editor's note: We wish to thank Greg Tang for his willingness to send us email answers to some questions we posed and for allowing us to follow up with a telephone conversation.]

Mary: How did you get started writing children's books?

When my daughter was in kindergarten, I volunteered in her class to help with math. One day her teacher handed me a basket of dominos and said "is there anything interesting we can do with these?" I looked at them and immediately noticed that all the white dots had pencil marks on them, which meant kids were counting them one at a time instead of adding the groupings. It struck me that working with groupings of dots would be a great way to transition kids from counting one at a time to thinking in more efficient groupings. At that time, I had my own company that did, among other things, computer graphics. I started designing math problems based on dots, and made them more interesting by turning the dots into groupings of bugs, fish, shells, fruit, and anything else I could think of. I wrote poems to go along with the problems, and it became my first book, The Grapes of Math. My goal in writing children's books is to make math easy. Too many kids do it the hard way. I try to teach them that the secret to being good at math is learning to break big numbers down into smaller, easier numbers, and learning to break big problems down into smaller, easier problems. And this holds true in writing, too.

Mary: Could you describe the process you use when you write?

I think I may have a fairly unique way of writing, at least that's what several teachers have told me. My approach is to start with words and rhymes and use them to trigger ideas for a poem. I think many writers do the reverse - they have an idea for a poem, and then they pick the words. While I always know what math concept I want to present in a poem, I rarely know how I'm going to communicate it. I just start playing with words and work backwards. For example, here's how I wrote a poem in my fourth book Math Appeal. The particular problem teaches kids to look for groups of eleven since it's such an easy number to multiply (e.g. 11x6=66, 11x8=88). I started thinking about peas because they are naturally grouped in pods. What rhymes with pod? Odd. And what's odd about a pod? A pod with a single pea in it. Why? Because peas don't like to be alone, they like to be with their friends! At this point, I knew the poem was going to work. I had a rhyme and a storyline, now all I needed was a catchy title.

The Boston Pea Party

A pea would find it rather odd,
      To be alone inside a pod.
They like to hang out with their friends,
      For them the party never ends.
Can you add up all the peas?
      Eleven makes it just a breeze!

The great thing about working backwards like this is that I'm not stuck looking for the perfect rhyme - I start with it! And perhaps even more important, the rhyme sparks my creativity; it gives me ideas I might never have thought of on my own. I think being successful at something means finding a way to offset any weaknesses you have. For me, coming up with creative storylines is my biggest challenge. Rhyming helps me think "out-of-the-box" and be more creative. Here's another example. In my next book Math Potatoes, which will be published this spring by Scholastic, I wrote a poem about pickles. Why pickles? Because pickle rhymes with fickle. And if you're fickle - which means you don't know what you want - pickles are good for you since they don't all taste the same.

In a Pickle

When you're in a fickle mood,
      pickles are the perfect food.
Some are sour, some are sweet,
      either way they're good to eat.
How many pickles in this bunch?
      Try subtracting in a crunch!

Here's one more from Math Potatoes. Once again I simply began with words. A squash can squash you. A beet can beat you. An onion can make you cry. I started thinking, what do you call someone that squashes you, beats you, and makes you cry? A bully!

Vegeta-bullies

A squash will squash you on the ground,
      and beets will beat you up and down.
But onions poke you in the eye,
      they're the ones that make you cry.
Can you count the bullies here?
      There is a fast way, have no fear!

I wrote Math Potatoes for kids ages 7-12. The problems in this book teach common sense strategies that make arithmetic faster and easier. They also help children become better problem-solvers.

Mary: What you are working on now?

Right now I'm working on several projects. I'm almost finished with the sequel to my latest book, Math Fables - Lessons that Count. The new book will be called Math Fables Too - Making Science Count and will teach kids creative ways to think about numbers and at the same time explore clever strategies animals use to survive. For example, did you know that green herons use bait to lure fish? When the birds are hungry, they drop a feather on the surface of the water. The fish below think the feather is something to eat and swim to the surface, where the herons are waiting patiently. I hope reading about clever strategies like this will interest kids in science, and also inspire them to be creative problem-solvers, not just in math but in everything they do. So far, I've written about bats that use echolocation to catch insects, chimpanzees that use sticks to fish for termites, and seagulls that use gravity to open oyster shells. This book has been so much fun to write.

Another project I am working on is the sequel to Math-terpieces. I'm focusing on famous ethnic artists and women artists like Jacob Lawrence, Diego Rivera, Georgia O'Keefe, and Mary Cassatt. This book, like Math-terpieces, is much harder for me to write than my other books. Here I am not free to just find rhymes and see where they lead; I have to write about particular artists and the important contributions they made. One poem in Math-terpieces took me six months to write. It was about Paul Cezanne, a painter famous for his still-life paintings and often called the Father of Modern Art for his innovative use of color. To make objects look three-dimensional and show the effect of light, he used pure bright colors rather than blending colors or using shades of color like artists before him. I rewrote this poem hundreds of times until I felt I had expressed this idea succinctly:

Peachy Keen

For Paul Cezanne, still lifes would do,
      A cloth, a vase and peaches, too.
His planes of color, pure and bright,
      So smartly capture form and light.
Can you make 10 with bowls of fruit?
      Find all 5 ways if youíre astute!

The third project I'm working on is my biggest of all. Iím launching my own line of teaching materials for teachers and parents. So in addition to my hardcover books from Scholastic, I will also have teaching guides, workbooks, flashcards, and math games available. I'm producing and publishing them myself, so it's quite an undertaking. But Iím an entrepreneur at heart and love the challenge. Anybody interested in these products can find out about them on my web site, www.gregtang.com.

Mary: Do you collaborate with the artists for your books and if so, how does that work?

For my first three books, The Grapes of Math, Math For All Seasons, and The Best of Times, I did not communicate directly with Harry Briggs, the illustrator. From what I've since learned, it is standard industry procedure for authors and illustrators to work independently when doing a book together. Typically, all communication goes through the editor. After we finished The Best of Times, I approached my publisher, Scholastic, about taking a different approach for my next book. We decided to give it a try, and I was able to work closely with Harry on Math Appeal. Everything went so smoothly that I now collaborate with my illustrators on all my books.

Mary: How do you know when you're done writing a book?

Kids always ask me if I like writing books. I tell them "I like writing books, but I really love finishing them!" For me, writing doesn't come easy. But I've learned that by writing, re-writing, and then re-writing some more, I can eventually produce something that makes me happy. I always remember the simple words of my Tae Kwon-Do Master, Kwon Jae-Hwa: "Never, never quit." So I just keep working until I get it right, and then as a final check I ask my kids to read the poems out loud to see if they have trouble with the rhymes or the meter. I think I'm getting better at writing, but it's still not easy for me.

Mary: Do you respond to students and teachers who contact you on your email address?

I try to respond to every student, teacher, or parent that writes. I feel lucky that people take the time to write me, and I always try to write back. I feel fortunate to be able to help in any way I can. (gregtang@gregtang.com)

Mary: What is the most unique question a student has ever asked you in your travels?

That's an easy one. "Is Jackie Chan your brother?" Of course I answered "yes." And let me tell you, those kids really paid attention for that next hour. I think as a teacher, sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to help kids learn!

Permission to reprint "Connecting Math and Poetry" by Greg Tang
(MRA Primer Vol. 33, No. 2) granted by Massachusetts Reading Association.

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