Count on Me by Miguel Tanco

Have you ever thought of using books in pairs? When I read Count on me I immediately thought of this book - Stars and Poppy Seeds:

Both of these books focus on following your passion which in this case is mathematics. The little girl in Count on Me sees other people have their talents and hobbies. Dad is an artist, mum is a scientist focusing on insects, her brother is keen to be a musician. She tries out other subjects but the little girl sees maths references in every part of her world. Maths is her passion. The playground equipment has geometric patterns. The city buildings are made from 3D shapes. Sharing a meal is the perfect place to think about fractions. Miguel Tanco gives his reader information about maths concepts on the final pages. You can read about fractals, polygons, curves, trajectories and sets.

You can see many of the pages from Count on me on the Seven Impossible things before Breakfast blog. Take a look because in this post Jules shows the real world examples used by Miguel. 

Whether math is a passion or not for the children with whom you share this book, readers everywhere will be able to relate to that search for the subject that fires them up. And you can count on this one for just such a story. Kirkus

There are so many wonderful things about Count on Me, written and illustrated by Miguel Tanco: the images, storyline, message…everything! It’s been awhile since I’ve read a picture book that seems to have it all. Teaching Literacy

Miguel Tanco lives in Spain and he is the author of over forty books. You can see some of them here. I have a Pinterest of picture books that explore Maths concepts. Here is a set of teaching ideas for Count on Me by Canadian publisher Tundra Books. Count on Me was originally written in English and then translated into Spanish with the title Conta comigo. 

From a book design point of view this book is quite scrumptious. It is a larger format hard cover book with a limited pallet of cream, red, brown and black. Luckily this book is fairly inexpensive here in Australia.

I have added these books by Miguel Tanco to my "to read" list: