FICTION

Help Me Learn Addition

by Jean MARZOLLO
photos by Chad Phillips. unpaged. CIP. Holiday House. Mar. 2012. RTE $15.95. ISBN 978-0-8234-2398-9. LC 2011024037.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 2—Using the clean photographic style and bouncing rhymes of Marzollo's "I Spy" series (Scholastic), this energetic picture book features basic math concepts such as counting, addition, counting by twos and fives, using tally marks, subtraction, and division. Child-friendly objects such as marbles, finger puppets, and animal figurines demonstrate each concept. The book is well suited for reading aloud, with mathematical challenges worked into the verses, allowing rhymes to give clues to the answers. Phillips's brightly colored photos make effective use of negative space to highlight specific mathematical elements; the book as a whole demonstrates similar thoughtfulness in the way concepts progress in difficulty, building from previous examples so as not to overwhelm.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
Opting for breadth over depth, Marzollo introduces--in what feels like a hurry--everything from skip-counting and grouping to tally marks and the commutative property of addition. Still, kids will enjoy completing the text's rhymes: "Our chicks paired off, / which helps us when / we skip count / 2, 4, 6, 8, ____ (10)." Photographs show toys (puppets, marbles, animal figurines) in eye-catching arrangements.
Reviewed by Kathleen Kelly MacMillan , Mar 01, 2012

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