DOUBLE PLAY

This jaunty rhyme set in a school playground serves as a playful introduction to the mathematical concept of doubling.

Jill and Jake, monkey friends, join their other animal classmates at recess to gallop, race, climb, jump rope, kick ball and blow bubbles, while coupling their playtime antics with matching addition equations. When they hang from the monkey bars “with just their knees, / they grip the bars. / They’re upside-downside / circus stars,” proving “2 knees + 2 knees = 4 knees.” Children accustomed to the play-to-learn environment of today’s curriculum will cheerily join in the fun with this precursor to multiplication that extends the math lesson to the pleasures of physical activity. Full-bleed double-page watercolor spreads offer a variety of playground scenes, each with a different equation to encompass the doubling sums of the numerals 1-10. Children will easily grasp the concept of mathematical equations as they readily count items clearly depicted in each scene and offered on the endpapers.

The frolicsome verse and efficacious design combine to highlight a precise exercise, making this concept picture book a twofold success. (Picture book. 6-8)