Count on Pablo: Counting & Skip Counting

Math Matters®

by Barbara deRubertis, Rebecca Thornburg (Illustrator)

Pablo is excited about helping his grandmother sell vegetables at the farmer's market. But no one comes to buy. Pablo's solution is clever - and delicious!

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Childrens, Cultural

32 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Gabrielle Palmisano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Count on Pablo is a great book to introduce counting sequences to children. Throughout this book, Pablo is helping is grandmother get ready to go to the market to sell some items from her garden. But first, Pablo must help her group everything together in order to sell. While Pablo was packing everything together he started to count the items. He first counted 20 limes individually. Next was 40 onions paired in groups of two. Then 100 peppers in groups of five. And lastly was 200 tomatoes in groups of ten. Once they got to the market Pablo helped his grandmother set up her stand. The market was packed full of people but nobody was interested in grandmother’s stand. When Pablo got hungry he got a bag of chips and the idea came across his mind to make salsa! The two got to work and sold everything.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pablo helps his Abuela get ready for market. First they wash and count the tomatoes, onions, peppers, limes, and cilantro by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. Then they set up their stall. When none of Abuela’s produce is selling, can they find a way to market it?

A counting book that may have salsa fans getting hungry. I like the way the illustrations make the American Southwest come to life. Pablo is a good helper for his grandmother and creative entrepreneur.

[Bridgette Cradick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although this story incorporates math and how to divide a set of objects equally, it is very stereotypical. Pablo lives in Mexico and goes to a market with his grandmother where they can't sell their tomatoes, onion, lime or cilantro to anyone, until Pablo gets the idea to make packages of all the ingredients together to make salsa. There are Spanish words but only a few like “hola” and “Mercado.” The representations of Mexican culture shows people at a market buying and selling things.
Pablo is the one who comes up with the idea to make salsa and sell it with chips from another booth. He then bundles to produce to make salsa packages for people to make his salsa.
Nothing about this book shows inequality of different cultural or socioeconomic groups. Pablo’s family lives in a house and owns a car although they are having trouble selling their produce at the market.
Pablo talks to the other vendors and he buys chips from another booth at the market to get people to try his salsa. Aside from that there are not connections between the characters. Pablo does not even interact with his grandmother in the booth.
Perceptions are not really transformed about cultures or other people. Pablo seems to be a problem solver though.
Disparities are not depicted in this book.

[J-Lynn Van Pelt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of th Math Matters series. It is labeled as K-2, "counting and skip counting", but the text is much too complicated as an independent read for that age range--it would be best used as a read aloud to practice counting. Pablo practices counting by the twos, fives, and tens.

The story shows a young boy who is excited about counting and whose creative idea helps his abuela sell all of her vegetables at the market.

[Alesha Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great math book. Pablo and his grandmother is making their special salsa. Throughout the book children would learn to count by twos, fives, and tens. This is a great book to read aloud to children when they are learning about counting I would use this in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades.

[Sharon Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

K-3
guided reading
fluent
problem realism
ethnic
Pablo helps his grandmother have a successful day at the farmers market using his math skills
relates math use in everyday life
additional math activities at the end

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Count on Pablo is a great book to read during math, when dealing with counting numbers. Throughout the book, Pablo counts by ones, two's, five's, and tens. He and his grandmother run a gardening stand, and uses all of these numbers to help make her famous salsa.

[Kathryn Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduces counting by 2s, 5s, 10s. Wonderful book for kindergarteners. If I had a classroom with students from Mexico, this would be a great connection. Also useful for students that are interested in cooking. Could be used to model a how to book for an English/LA lesson.

[CFAITC]

Pablo uses math while he helps pick, clean, and sell vegetables at the farmers market.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun way to learn how to count by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's.

[Kiddo]

Looks like a nice series but couldn't get kiddo to read this.