A helpful series of classroom exercises, connected by a story about twins exploring a hidden world.
Two sisters solve a series of math problems and logic puzzles to make their way through a magical realm.
In this middle-grade novel, Mohr (Classic Poetry for Your Little Genius, 2014) draws on the works of Lewis Carroll to tell a story that uses a quest to connect a series of math problems. Twin sisters Lulu and Elizabeth are drawn into the journey when Lulu, the younger and more excitable sibling, loses her favorite silver glitter gel pen to a magical magpie. She convinces Elizabeth, who would prefer to stay home with her books, to help her recover it. The two discover an enchanted book that presents challenges in rhyme and provides a new clue after the girls solve each puzzle. They work with tangrams, calculate heights, find the midpoint of a circle, move untrustworthy creatures across a river, and learn about exponential growth in order to reach their destination, assisted by a talking pig, a wolf named Manxome McLay, and a group of Slithy Toves. Callout boxes invite the reader to solve each puzzle along with Lulu and Elizabeth, and each chapter concludes with a series of additional problems related to the concept discussed. (Answers are provided in an appendix.) While Lulu and Elizabeth have clearly defined personalities, they are also preternaturally earnest (“you keep trudging through to get to that gratifying state of Q.E.D.”), and both character and plot take a back seat to the narrative’s primary purpose of providing a context for the math and logic questions. Although Mohr displays a strong grasp of math and Carroll, minor errors in the text (“Ex Caliber” for King Arthur’s sword; “limerick” for a poem with four lines and a non-limerick rhyme scheme) detract slightly from the otherwise strong presentation of classic mathematical theories in terms young readers can easily follow. The book is a useful educational tool, though not a novel many would choose to read for pleasure.
A helpful series of classroom exercises, connected by a story about twins exploring a hidden world.Pub Date: May 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5328-9442-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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