ERIC THE MATH BEAR

Eric, a red glow-in-the-dark bear who works in a bank, foils a robbery in Glicksman’s debut picture book. There’s a lot going on here and little of it has to do with mathematics. The only counting activity is a double-paged spread that invites children to pick out the things Eric sees on his way to work (“two yellow trucks, four bears fishing, six red cars, eight boats on the river . . . ”). This isn’t the resource parents or teachers will want to introduce numerical concepts or supplement the school curriculum. Plus, the violent depiction of the robbery, in which the bad guys hold a female customer hostage and threaten to eat her until Eric gives up the combination on the safe, may frighten young readers. It just doesn’t add up. (Picture book. 5-8)