Math story problems aren’t always boring exercises about dividing up a bowl of apples or trains traveling between cities. Sometimes story problems can be rhyming, funny, and delightfully illustrated, as evidenced by this collaboration between Lewis (A World of Wonders, p. 48, etc.) and Remkiewicz, illustrator of the popular Horrible Harry and Froggy series. The 18 math puzzles are full of amusing names and situations, such as calculating the time for a quick trip to Kalamazoo or the weight of a poodle named Poo-poo-pee-doo. Three additional selections include a novel way to multiply by nine as well as a rebus-like round of letters between a dog and a cat (regarding a K-9 T). The text is printed on blue-lined notebook paper with the answers to the puzzles cleverly printed below each problem in reverse (adding a mini-science lesson when the answers are held up to a mirror to be read). Remkiewicz provides cheery illustrations in watercolor and colored pencil, with smiling children and comical animals in double-page spreads that will work well with a group. Most of the puzzles are at the third- or fourth-grade level, but many could be solved by younger children with an adult’s help. This is also an excellent choice for younger gifted children, who will enjoy the challenge of math problems with a humorous twist. (Nonfiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-216418-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Whistle/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
A dozen familiar dinosaurs introduce themselves in verse in this uninspired, if colorful, new animal gallery from the authors of Commotion in the Ocean (2000). Smiling, usually toothily, and sporting an array of diamonds, lightning bolts, spikes and tiger stripes, the garishly colored dinosaurs make an eye-catching show, but their comments seldom measure up to their appearance: “I’m a swimming reptile, / I dive down in the sea. / And when I spot a yummy squid, / I eat it up with glee!” (“Ichthyosaurus”) Next to the likes of Kevin Crotty’s Dinosongs (2000), illustrated by Kurt Vargo, or Jack Prelutsky’s classic Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast (1988), illustrated by Arnold Lobel, there’s not much here to roar about. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58925-044-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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