Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, School Day Math by McGrath - ADVISABLE

McGrath, Barbara Barbieri Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, School Day Math.  Charlesbridge, 2012, $7.95.  PICTURE BOOK. Content: G.  

The Teddy Bears are busy doing math.  Simple pattern recognition and predicting, grouping, weighing and even fractions are included in a very quick, limited manner.  While you couldn’t use this book to actually teach any of these concepts, it is a very quick introduction or review.  

I gave this to one of my math teachers at my middle school and she is adamant that we keep it here in our library for her to use every year – her kids enjoyed it that much.  This would make a fun gift for a math teacher, too.   

EL – ADVISABLE; MS, GIFT – OPTIONAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher

Island of the Unknowns by Benedict Carey - ADVISABLE

Carey, Benedict.  Island of the Unknowns, 259 pages.  Amulet Book (ABRAMS), 2011 (originally published as The Unknowns in 2009).  $6.95 (paperback).  Language: PG (8 Swears); Sexual Content: G; Violence: PG.  Folsom Energy is a power plant.  Folsom Adjacent is the trailer park next to Folsom Energy (hence the name Adjacent).  In other words, it doesn't really have a name...it is a "nothing kind of place."  Nothing seems to happen there.  That is until people start mysteriously disappearing.  Lady Di and Tom Jones decide that something is wrong, and they start following clues left behind by Malba Clarke.  She uses math to lead them to answers to what is going on.  And they follow those clues and use more and more math as they go.  This book was okay.  It had its ups and it had its downs.  But I didn't love it.  The characters were quirky, but at times I felt like the author was trying too hard to make them quirky.  I enjoy math; in fact in school I liked math much more than I liked English.  And so I actually enjoyed reading and thinking about the math element.  The book would work well in a math class or in a cross-curricular unit.  It is for that possibility that I bump the book from optional up to advisable.  It deserves a place in schools, even if it is not a must-read.  EL, MS, HS - ADVISABLE.  Brent Smith, Reading Teacher