365 How to Count a Year by Miranda Paul illustrated by Julien Chung

The front end paper shows all the numbers from one up to 365. The back end papers are filled with confetti! I think this means - we do not need to constrain our lives with numbers but they sure can be fun.

Yes, it does take 365 days for Earth to spin around the sun but it might easier to think of this as 365 "good mornings" and 365 "good nights" oh and "hopefully 365 clean pairs of underwear."

I love the tone of this counting book.

There are 52 weeks in the year but surely it is better to think of this as "52 Friday night movie popcorn spills."  There are 12 months in the year or "12 bulletin board ideas in Mr Winner's classroom." 

Of course, in one year we only have one birthday cake, one birthday wish, one birthday party. Be patient the next one is only 8,760 hours away. 

A bright, buoyant look at measurements, conventional and otherwise. Kirkus

This is a perfect book to add to your preschool collection or library. Hopefully you might also find it in your local school or public library so you can borrow this book to share with your own young reading companion. 

You can see other books by Miranda Paul here. I previously talked about this one:

Peace

There are so many brilliant counting books we can share with our youngest children. In your library go to [510] or for this book about the days in the year go to [529]:

One Fox

How to count to One

Lifetime

I am very keen to see this book illustrated by Julien Chung:

Read the Kirkus review

We Are One by Susan Hood illustrated by Linda Yan

 

Is this a counting book? Not quite. Is this a book about the application of numbers in real life? YES. Is this a quirky book filled with obscure and curious facts about numbers? YES. Is this a book to share with a young child? YES but it is also one you could read to much older children too. So, I suggest you add this fabulous book to your library shopping list today. 

"One can be one thing all on its own - one star, one stream, one stick, one stone. But those on their toes, those using their smarts, know one can be more than the sum of its parts."

Fact - The idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts comes from Aristotle. 

Well, that's got you thinking about one but what about two. A sandwich needs two slices of bread and a marriage is between two people. 

Fact - the first recorded sandwich was created in the first century BCE.

Now think about the number three. What would you have put on that page? I am certain you will never guess what Susan Hood has used for this number - a Haiku poem has three lines and the word 'you' has three letters. 

Fact - many stories and poems follow the rule of three - Three Little Pigs, Three Billy Goats and so on. I loved reading the words omen trium perfectum in Latin - trios equal perfection. 

And so this book continues with a double spread for each number right up to ten. The pages are split with a reference to the number at the top of each page - a reference younger children will understand - and a fact section in a much smaller font at the bottom of each page which curious children and adult are sure to enjoy. 

At the back of the book there is a wealth of material to explore. A source list for each number, a list of kids websites, and generous lists of other things relating to each number from ten back to one. 

Before reading this book you could brainstorm with your class all the things you can think of to match each number from one to ten. Then read the book. Then compare your lists with the ones in the book and those provided at the back. Here is the list for my favourite number - three:

Three

• primary colours and three secondary colours
• snowballs on a classic snowman
• teaspoons in a tablespoon
• hands on a clock
• legs on an easel
• three Musketeers
• wheels on a tricycle
• wishes in a genie's lamp
• meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner
• kids in a set of triplets
• members of musical trio
• sides of a triangle

We Are One is another amazing book discovery. This book is why I blog books from everywhere - not just here in Australia. I have said this before, but we are so lucky to have access to books from other English speaking countries and of course also access to fabulous, translated books too. We Are One is from the USA published by Candlewick (they always do fabulous books - in the UK and here they are called Walker Books). The author is from Connecticut and the illustrator is from Canada. The library where I spied this book bought it from a city bookstore here in Sydney, Australia.

Immensely satisfying for young lovers of numbers and fascinating for everyone. Kirkus Star review

Counting books become rote after a while. Expected. You begin to yearn to see how someone might shake ‘em up a little. Now what’s so interesting about the latest from Hood & Yan is a very early statement in the text that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” That little nubbin of philosophy drives the rest of the book, and you can practically see little minds expanding as it does. Betsy Bird Fuse8 31 lists in 31 Days, 2021 Math Books

Math meets philosophy, as Hood views numbers, specifically groups of one to ten, through a unique and ­thought-provoking lens: the Aristotelian concept that the whole can be greater — more useful, more remarkable, more valuable — than its ­individual components. … Textured and whimsical, Yan’s digital illustrations feature a young girl dressed as a golden-yellow star who, ultimately, is joined by a diverse “constellation” of other star-children to celebrate the oneness of humanity. Horn Book

If I could recommend one picture book from 2021 to give as a gift, it would be this one. It manages to be both educational and whimsical, beautiful in its writing, illustrations, and concept, with plenty of extras to surprise and delight throughout. Loved it from start to finish.  Cloud Lake Literary Canada

Here is my Maths through Picture Books Pinterest collection. 

Here are the books I have mentioned on this blog by Susan Hood:

Alias Anna

Ada's Violin

The Tooth Mouse

Julia Donaldson and Sharon King-Chai

 

Recently I have seen a few requests on Facebook forums asking for books to gift a young child or books for a baby gift or books that could be keepsakes.  I think these three books are so perfect. Julia Donaldson is a master with language and Sharon King-Chai produces exquisite art.

These books have flaps and die cuts (holes) and richly coloured illustrations. You can buy hardcover or paperback editions. If you can buy all three books they would be a beautiful gift. 

Counting creatures is indeed a counting book but it also introduces a young child to the names we use for animal babies - all told in gentle rhyme with a repeated refrain - 'Who has more babies that that?' You can see inside this book here.

The wild dog has four pups; the owl has five owlets; the arctic hare has seven leverets; the turkey has fifteen poults; and the frog has twenty-five tadpoles.

Then there is the delicious language: the cubs are tottering, swaying, pouncing and playing; the pups are nosing and nestling, writhing and wrestling; and the baby mice are pattering, pawing, nibbling and gnawing.

Sharon King-Chai says: The paperback cover for a rich and beautiful counting book full of gorgeous baby animals, with shaped pages, flaps and fold-outs - the cover was designed to be more seasonally appropriate as it is publishing in the spring (the hardback was autumn) and to include a die-cut flap.

See inside Colours, Colours everywhere here. 

See inside Animalphabet here. I talked about Animalphabet back in 2019.

 

A Million Dots by Sven Völker

Yes, this book does contain a million dots - actually the final page has 1,048,576 dots. 

If you have a shelf of maths concept books in your library this is one more title you will want to add. This book could be a great way to share the idea of doubling numbers and ways to represent huge numbers too. It is easy to see the German illustrator Sven Völker is a graphic designer. 

Take a look here to see some terrific ideas for using this book with all ages of children. You can see inside this book here. Here is a video of Sven talking about his book winning the New York Times New York Public Library ten best Illustrated Books. 

I have a Pinterest of Maths concepts through Picture Books. 

You could also look for:

And just for fun you could compare A Million Dots with this book:

How to Count to One

How many trees? by Barroux

How many trees make a forest? Everyone has a different opinion but the wisest answer may come from a surprising source.

One of the things I miss now that I have retired as a Teacher-Librarian is reading aloud to young children. How Many Trees? is a book that just begs to be read aloud or perhaps even be turned into a dramatic performance with eight voices. Here is a video from the Scottish Book Trust.

Who is Barroux?

His full name is Stephane-Yves Barroux. Barroux was born in Paris, he spent much of his childhood in North Africa and later attended art school in France where he now lives. He began illustrating by creating linocut images, and continues to try out various techniques in his work – from collages with antique papers, to oil pastels, to interesting color palettes. Despite all of the countries and far-away lands he’s explored, Barroux still believes that life in books is more extraordinary, where dogs can fly and trees are blue.Here are a few of his books:

Stars and Poppy Seeds by Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lisiv

You never fail until you stop trying - Albert Einstein

Flora loves to count perhaps because her parents are mathematicians and she has probably been exposed to numbers all through her childhood.

"While other children counted sheep to fall asleep, Flora counted all the animals of the world. She even counted sea cows, elephants and platypuses"

Platypuses!  This book was originally written in Russian by Ukrainian husband and wife Andriy Lisiv and Romana Romanyshyn. I love that they have included our platypus. I find this delightful and amazing. Here is the word platypus in Russian script:  утконос

I am collecting Picture books translated into English. I am guessing this beautiful book came to the attention of Tate Publishing because the work of Romana and Andriy has received special mentions at the Bologna Ragazzi awards several times. Stars and Poppy Seeds was first published in 2014 with the English language edition produced in 2019 with a translation by Oksana Lushchevska. In this post for Seven Impossible Things Oksana talks about five very special Ukrainian picture books and her passion for sharing these with the world.

Begin with the end papers which are different forms of grid or graph paper. Flora counts ants, buttons and button holes, Polka dots and pearls. Flora tries to count the stars in the night sky. She devises complex mathematical formulas but this seems to be an impossible task. Her parents encourage. "Every task, even the most complicated, begins the same way with one step. If you take small steps, you can achieve even your biggest dreams."

The final pages contain figures relating to the universe:

• As of June 2018, 561 people have gone to space but only twelve have walked on the moon.
• There are 9,096 stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky.
• You could fit in million earths into the sun!

On the next page you can read about some famous mathematicians - Pythagoras; Sir Isaac Newton; Ada Lovelace; Albert Einstein; Katherine Johnson and Stephen Hawking.

The last spread has a list of museums from around the world which celebrate mathematics including our Sydney Observatory.

The whole book is a glorious celebration of the wonders of numbers; the enormity of the universe; and the determination of a young girl to satisfy her curiosity. Book design and art students are sure to love exploring the art used in this book which looks very different from our Australian children's picture books.

Stars and Poppy Seeds has been translated into French, Korean, Spanish and English. Here is the cover of the Russian edition:

Here is my favourite page - I used to love completing dot to dot puzzles and like Flora, I am also a person who loves to count things but perhaps not quite as many things as Flora!

You can see more pages from this book at Behance.

Here are two new picture books (in English)  by Romana and Andriy:

The thing about jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

Surrounded by the cruelty of adolescence, Zu is awkward, smart, methodical, and driven by sadness. 

As humans we constantly seek answers.  When someone dies, especially a younger person, we want to know why and how and most importantly was there something we should have done to prevent this.

Franny and Suzy had been friends since elementary school.  One day her mum calls her inside and says "Franny Jackson drowned."  Suzy is obsessed by numbers.  These are just three words but these words begin a tumultuous internal dialogue which sees Suzy trying to make peace with her childhood 'friend' and her own mistakes of the past.

"None of it made sense. Not then, and not later that night when the Earth dipped toward the stars. Not the next morning when it rolled back around to sunlight again."

Suzy needs answers so she turns to science she also decides to become silent.  Her self imposed silence means finding the answer to this tragedy become very one sided.  There is no one to collaborate with - no other view points.  Suzy is utterly convinced the culprit is the Irukandji jellyfish and so her scientific mind sets about intensive research to find everything she can about this mysterious creature - hence the title 'The thing about jellyfish.'

The class have to present a science talk on a topic of their own choice.  Each chapter of The thing about Jellyfish begins with an aspect of the scientific method their teacher Mrs Turton expects them to use.  One day she shows the class a set of pictures of earth seen from space.

"Here I was, just one out of seven billion people, and people were just one species out of ten million and those ten million were just a tiny fraction of all the species that ever existed, and somehow all of fit onto that fleck of brown dust on the screen. And we were surrounded by nothingness."

There are three narratives in this story shown with different fonts. The present action where we read about Suzy, her family and her jellyfish research, childhood scenes in happier times when Suzy and Franny were best friends and the recent past when pressures of the peer group and feelings of alienation wrecked everything for Suzy.  The scenes where Franny's new friends reject Suzy and Suzy's own social confusions are quite confronting.

One of the bloggers I follow is Mrs Yingling and the part of her reviews I really appreciate is her final comment "What I really think".

So what do I really think about The thing about Jellyfish.   I knew I would cry in this book but really the tears were not a result of my deep emotional connection with Suzy and her terrible experience of the death of a close friend.  I admire her drive, her attention to detail and her deep research but I remain a little confused about Suzy.  I felt she may be on the autism spectrum because she was so obsessive about numbers and details and so confused by social situations but the final scenes made me revise this idea.  I am sure this is a book that readers over 12 will enjoy and perhaps relate to especially as they navigate their confusion with identity and peer expectations.

My big problem with this book, though,  is with the suggested readership. The New York Times says 9-12.  I totally disagree.  I think this is for very mature senior primary students but really it is even more suitable for junior High School students.  There are references in this book to same sex relationships and after an especially awful scene Suzy, who is twelve, finds her period has started. In contrast Kirkus say 12+ and I agree with this.

Here is an interview with the author.  You might also enjoy Counting by 7s and True (sort of).

Lifetime : The amazing numbers in animal lives by Lola M Schaefer illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal

When I read a book like Lifetime I just want to rush to a teacher and beg them to use this book because there is just so much to discover here.

Lifetime is so much more than a simple counting book of even an exploration of numbers.  "Lifetime shows how many times one particular animal performs one behavior or grows one feature in a lifetime."

The book begins with a spider and her fragile egg sac. As you turn each page you will find so many fascinating facts in this book.  Did you know caribou shed 10 sets of antlers and a rattlesnake will add 40 beads to its rattle.
Every part of the animal kingdom is explored from seahorses to kangaroos, dolphins to butterflies.

The final pages are an excellent additional resource.  Lola M Schaefer explains how averages work and then explains in great detail how she arrived at the actual average she used for each creature.  For example the Red Kangaroo will birth 2 or 3 joeys every year and their lifespan is about 21.5 years. The maths of averages means after 20 years of having joeys the Red Kangaroo will have 50 joeys in her lifetime.

Here is the author web site.  We do have several of her books in our school library but I plan to add more.

The pros and cons of being a frog by Sue deGennaro

There is a subtle little design feature on the front cover of this CBCA Short listed book. If you feel the numbers you will notice number 17 and number 23 are embossed into the cover.  This is because Camille is a numbers girl.  She loves numbers so much she sometimes uses them to communicate.  17 means NO and 23 means YES.  Oddly you wont find 17 or 23 among the jumble of numbers on the end papers.  There is another number shown in this book - 8 but it is not explained.  The reader needs to look closely the context where Camille uses 8 to work it out.  I think 8 might mean a perfect match.

Our unnamed narrator loves to dress up and he loves frogs.  Initially he dresses up as a cat but this leads to difficulties with a local dog.  He tries on other animals suits but it is Camille who finally suggests a frog.  "Frogs are not solitary creatures. I decided I needed a friend.  Camille agreed to help."

This book reminded me of Suzie and Alfred in the night of the paperbag monsters by Helen Craig.  Camille and her friend almost lose each other in the process.  It is up to the narrator to make the peace after he makes a careful list of Pros and Cons....  Here are the cons.

"1.  Not everyone loves wearing a frog costume as much as me.
2.   If you start getting bossy about your frog costume then your friend will get up and leave.
3.   A frog is not a solitary creature so it's no fun for a frog if his friend gets up and leaves."

When we read this book at school we will also look at Henry and Amy right way round and upside down by Stephen Michael King, Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey and A friend like Ed by Karen Wagner.

Here is an excellent review.
This gorgeous book is not only cleverly written, it is an absolute delight for the eyes. Sue deGennaro has a brilliant knack for combining modern yet whimsical illustrations with unusual, artsy undertones and design layout that is just so beautiful, it screams avant-garde without feeling alienating or pretentious.