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The Great Math Tattle Battle
Harley Harrison is the best math student in second grade; he is also the biggest tattletale. Then Emma Jean arrrives. She is good at math too, but is also a tattletale. Soon they're using their math skills to tattle on each other every chance they get.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 16, 2021
The Great Math Tattle Battle is a funny and sincere book that would easily appeal to kids in kindergarten through third grade.
I think The Great Math Tattle Battle would make sense as a choice book for independent reading, maybe found in a collection of "school stories," but it could also work as a social-emotional read aloud if a teacher notices there's too much tattling going on in the classroom, especially with a focus on Jaime Zollars detailed illustrations of facial expressions.
I also love the balance between male and female characters in this book, something I can tell Bowen and Zollars put a lot of effort into.
I would definitely love to see this book in my classroom in the future.
Read my full review on my Goodreads account for children's books.
I think The Great Math Tattle Battle would make sense as a choice book for independent reading, maybe found in a collection of "school stories," but it could also work as a social-emotional read aloud if a teacher notices there's too much tattling going on in the classroom, especially with a focus on Jaime Zollars detailed illustrations of facial expressions.
I also love the balance between male and female characters in this book, something I can tell Bowen and Zollars put a lot of effort into.
I would definitely love to see this book in my classroom in the future.
Read my full review on my Goodreads account for children's books.
September 4, 2019
This is a perfect book for younger students having a hard time with tattling, and also, for math-centered students. Bowen shows that math can be helpful and fun by adding up erasers chewed, kleenexes left on the desk, or chocolate milks drank. It also showcases a student not well liked making friends with a new student.
December 16, 2021
The Great Math Tattle Battle is a funny and sincere book that would easily appeal to kids in kindergarten through third grade.
Harley is the best math student in 2nd grade, but he's also the biggest tattletale, and he spends a lot of time writing notes to his teachers and staff about every little thing his classmates are doing, adding up the total times everyone makes a mistake. Harley is unrivaled in both math and notes until Emma Jean moves to town. For the first time, Harley has competition in both areas. Harley and Emma Jean have to learn to work together and complain less if they want to achieve anything meaningful in the classroom.
I think The Great Math Tattle Battle would make sense as a choice book for independent reading, maybe found in a collection of "school stories," but it could also work as a read aloud if a teacher notices there's too much tattling going on in the classroom. Jaime Zollars does a lot with facial expressions in her illustrations, making this a good book for social-emotional learning with a lot of questions regarding character emotions and evidence to support that, and then helping students to share how issues (such as tattling) make them feel.
One other thing I love is that The Great Math Tattle Battle represents male and female students equally in terms of academic strengths, and also in terms of who we see in the classroom. The illustrations add a lot to this, and it's clear Anne Bowen and Jaime Zollars strive for equal representation throughout the story.
I would definitely love to see this book in my classroom in the future.
Harley is the best math student in 2nd grade, but he's also the biggest tattletale, and he spends a lot of time writing notes to his teachers and staff about every little thing his classmates are doing, adding up the total times everyone makes a mistake. Harley is unrivaled in both math and notes until Emma Jean moves to town. For the first time, Harley has competition in both areas. Harley and Emma Jean have to learn to work together and complain less if they want to achieve anything meaningful in the classroom.
I think The Great Math Tattle Battle would make sense as a choice book for independent reading, maybe found in a collection of "school stories," but it could also work as a read aloud if a teacher notices there's too much tattling going on in the classroom. Jaime Zollars does a lot with facial expressions in her illustrations, making this a good book for social-emotional learning with a lot of questions regarding character emotions and evidence to support that, and then helping students to share how issues (such as tattling) make them feel.
One other thing I love is that The Great Math Tattle Battle represents male and female students equally in terms of academic strengths, and also in terms of who we see in the classroom. The illustrations add a lot to this, and it's clear Anne Bowen and Jaime Zollars strive for equal representation throughout the story.
I would definitely love to see this book in my classroom in the future.
November 22, 2013
Harley Harrison is the biggest tattle tell in second grade He tattles on everyone. He tattles in a unique way, through math. He is the best math student in class and he uses his skills for evil lol. Each day he would write a report to Mr. Hall. One of his reports stated, "Erwin chewed the erasers off 8 pencils on Monday, 3 pencils on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday and 4 on Friday. Total: 21 erasers. Signed, H.H." Harley's personal life suffered because of his tattling ways. Nobody could stand to be around him!
Harley finally met his tattling match through Emma Jean Smith, she outsmarted him at tattling and math. He was very upset when she helped him with his math and tattled on him. A tedious math assignment forces them to work together. The duo become friends and decide to quit tattling on each other. Everyone is relieved!
This book is a gateway to the introduction of word problems. As a teacher I would print the examples out for the students to review. I would use the 13 examples listed in the back of the book as "Tickets out of the Door." Math is an awesome subject that encompasses literacy because children must know how to read before they can solve word problems.
The book has great literacy elements. It uses rhyming words. Students will be able to identify the rhyming words. Students may describe characters. They may sequence the story. A fun activity for students to do is a mathematical poem. Challenge them to write a mathematical poem about their classroom. The responses will be funny! I highly recommend this book.
Harley finally met his tattling match through Emma Jean Smith, she outsmarted him at tattling and math. He was very upset when she helped him with his math and tattled on him. A tedious math assignment forces them to work together. The duo become friends and decide to quit tattling on each other. Everyone is relieved!
This book is a gateway to the introduction of word problems. As a teacher I would print the examples out for the students to review. I would use the 13 examples listed in the back of the book as "Tickets out of the Door." Math is an awesome subject that encompasses literacy because children must know how to read before they can solve word problems.
The book has great literacy elements. It uses rhyming words. Students will be able to identify the rhyming words. Students may describe characters. They may sequence the story. A fun activity for students to do is a mathematical poem. Challenge them to write a mathematical poem about their classroom. The responses will be funny! I highly recommend this book.
February 16, 2011
This book is about a math whiz named Harley Harrison. Not only was he a math whiz but he is a huge tattle tale. He is also writing the teacher notes tattling on his classmates and they do not like it. In his notes he always includes some sort of math. "Cindy and Mindy forgot to clean under their desks three days in a row. P.S. There are four pencils, six crayons, seven pieces of paper, and ten tissues. Signed, H.H." Then the class got a new student named Emma Jean who was just like Harley. She started telling on him just like her did with his classmates. Then there was a math assignment that would get who ever finished it first and got all of the problems correct extra recess time for four days in a row. So the two put their differences aside and joined forces. I won't give away the ending but this is a great book not only for discussing the difference between tattling and telling during the first week of school, but it is also great for teaching basic math. There are examples of addition all throughout the book, and in the back of the book there is something called "Math Tattle Battle Teasers". It has math problems for students to do with answers on the very last page. It is a great book and I would recommend it to any parent or teacher.
February 9, 2011
Oh Harley Harrison! He is the class tattletale. He writes notes to his teacher Mr. Hall about everything telling on everyone. Well one day Harley meets his match.. her name is Emma Jean. She is just as bad or even worse than Harley. Emma Jean begins to tell on Harley and he is stunned. Well they compete so much against each other to be the class tattletale, they dont realize how great a partnership they could have if they teamed up. Well they do and it is remarkable the things they accomplish. I liked this book even more when i finished and saw that there were even brain teasers for the students to try.
August 20, 2016
Great read aloud to teach friendship, tattling vs telling, and math!!! HH is always writing notes to his teacher, the custodian, the cafeteria, etc.. about someone's behavior. His notes include the math he has to do to get a total count of the offenses. Until a new kid, Emma Jean, shows up in his class. Now, she's tattling on HH!! What happens when they are paired up to do math problems and don't want to work together to solve them? 3rd graders loved it because the storyline is slightly suspenseful and includes the age-old relatable topic, tattling. Wouldn't use above 3rd, just because the characters are in 2nd and the storyline is more for younger children.
May 25, 2010
I love this book! It starts off with a boy who tattled on his classmates. He uses math in his tattle notes to his teacher. For example, "Erwin chewed the erasers off 8 pencils on Monday, 3 pencils on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday and 4 on Friday. Total: 21 erasers." Then one day, they get a new student named Emma Jean. She also uses math in her tattle notes. Will Emma Jean and Harley manage to overcome their differences?
December 5, 2010
I am a fan of this book. I love the illustrations and every page of the book is filled with numbers or math problems. I would use this book in the classroom in math to help children add, multiply, and tell time. The most important reason I would use this book in the classroom is to help with tattle telling and to help children understand that if they work together to solve their problems, I lot of work will get done. This is the best children book I have ever read!
April 9, 2008
This one is hilarious if you have a little tattler of your own! I do, in fact I have two, so this book was easily appreciated in our family. Maybe my two will learn a thing or two about how not to be a little tattle teller!
April 11, 2008
For someone who strongly dislikes Math, hey, I chose a degree that didn't even require it, I found that I loved this story...maybe it was more the relationships I found amusing, than the actual math! Yech!
November 21, 2008
Harley has a common problem, tattling. And yet he's a likable kid. Nice for child readers to know that a character can have flaws and still be a good person.
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March 22, 2010This is a really cute book and it offers some good opportunties to practice math. It even gives you extra word problems to work on in the back of the book!
January 23, 2014
Both the illustrations and the story were lacking to me. Not a good example of a book that includes math.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews