No, really, get over the title. This book is awesome.
Betsy Franco. Mathematickles! Illustrated by Steven Salerno. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2003. 40 pages. Age 7 to 10.
You know what’s weird? The cultural phenomenon of math anxiety. And the belief that mathematics and the humanities are antithetical. Hardly so. Just pick up a popular math book, and you’ll see what I mean. Anything by Ian Stewart will do nicely.
Or, if you really do have math anxiety, maybe you should start with my new favorite poetry book of all time. “Of all time” may be an exaggeration, but I’ve fallen for it pretty hard.
Mathematickles! uses arithmetic conventions and comically misused Cartesian coordinate planes to describe the seasons with brevity and precision. One example is this multiplication table:
| x | cold | sun |
|---|---|---|
| snow | snow | slush |
| rain | sleet | rainbow |
| window | frost | sunbeam |
Or there’s “Bird Taking Flight,” which graphs the linear equation y = (⅔)x …OK, maybe that one looks better on a graph. But how about this one?—
sphere
sphere
+ sphere
snowman
I do think you’ll like it, if you’re human and like seasons and live in the world and have a quirky sense of humor. You don’t have to be a math person. Well, maybe I’m not the best judge. Even more reason to pick up the book and see for yourself!
Poetry Friday is hosted by Irene Latham today. I bet you dollars to doughnuts that it’s an otherwise math-free zone.
[ Posted in » Book Review Channel :: Poetry Reviews ]
This book sounds terrific. I love math, love poetry and, I live in the world – a perfect match!
Finally a way to combined my love of poetry and math. I’ll have to check this out.
I happen to like the title by the way.
Adding this to my wish list straight away :-) In fact, now I want to go and make a snowman…