Synopses & Reviews
Readers who have graduated from THE GRAPES OF MATH will find new, more advanced math challenges.
Greg Tang is back with his bestselling approach to addition and subtraction: problem solving. By solving challenges that encourage kids to "group" numbers rather than memorize formulas, even the most reluctant math learners are inspired to see math in a whole new way! Math Potatoes is full of Tang and Briggs' trademark humor, wit, and extraordinary creativity. Tang has proven over and over that math can be fun, and this new addition to his acclaimed series of mind-stretching math riddles is sure to be another hit.
Review
Booklist 5/1/5-05 The seventh in Tang's math series, which includes The Grapes of Math (2000),this picture book uses all kinds of visual tricks to demonstrate how to make
arithmetic faster and easier. On each double-page spread, a rhyming verse has fun with a variety of subjects. Most rhymes are about foods-including pickles, potatoes, and "flat- jacks'7--and the clear, bright, computer-generated pictures are as playful as the words. This goes far beyond the usual simple counting book. The games are complex, the visuals are tricky, and although the rhyme seems straightforward ("Instead of adding row by row/ Columns are the way to go"), it requires readers to think carefully about adding, subtracting, and multiplying. "Imagine eight in every row / Just subtract and you will know." The spacious, illustrated answer pages at the back explain the puzzles, which will be fun for classroom use as well as for kids trying to find shortcuts in the counting jungle.
-Hazel Rochma