Mathematickles! - Hardcover

A poet who loves math, Betsy Franco has spent more than twenty years showing children the beauty, depth, and fun of mathematics through her picture books, poetry, and nonfiction, including Counting Caterpillars and Other Math Poems, Grandpa's Quilt, You Hear Me? Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys, and Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writings by Teenage Girls. She is also the inventor of three mathematical toys.

Betsy Franco lives with her husband in Palo Alto, California. They have three sons.

Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. As the jacket states, "words + math + seasons = Mathematickles!" This book offers brief poems using forms suggested by mathematical processes, all within a seasonal framework changing from fall to winter to spring to summer. Some of the cleverest examples are too visual to relate effectively in text alone, but a few equations will give a taste of Franco's offerings: "maple leaves + puddle = crimson ships"; "holes + nuts - nuts = squirrel hide & seek"; and "feet - shoes + grass = barefoot." Two, three, or four of these poems appear on each double-page spread, accompanied by Salerno's jaunty, watercolor-and-gouache artwork. Although some of the spreads seem too busy, others look fresh and energetic. A girl, often accompanied by her cat, brings continuity to the scenes of the countryside going through colorful seasonal changes. Though the inspiration for these poetic bits may be mathematical, they don't always display the logic that is fundamental to math. Ultimately, they will appeal most to lovers of wordplay. Using this colorful book as a springboard, language arts teachers can challenge their students to write their own mathematickles. Carolyn Phelan
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