Riddle-Iculous Math

by Joan Holub, Regan Dunnick (Illustrator)

This funny book of riddles and jokes teach youngsters basic math skills while they read about animal sleepover parties, cafeteria food fights, and a boy who made five million dollars in a month. Full color.

Genres: Mathematics, Childrens, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

NY Times bestselling children's book author:
GODDESS GIRLS series + HEROES IN TRAINING series (w Suzanne Williams); THIS LITTLE TRAILBLAZER a Girl Power Primer; ZERO THE HERO; I AM THE SHARK. Lucky to be doing what I love!

Reviews

[Alexandria]

Great math book for some riddles and jokes for kids! It can also be a great tool for teaching in a classroom (2-5) for some fun whole class activities.

[Joy Lane]

there are a few good ones

[Hyeonjeong Lee]

Personal Reaction - I like this book because it has many examples of math problems. When I learned Math, my first math teacher gave me many examples to practice. I believe to practice similar questions would help children to have a better understanding of math. Moreover, this book includes many fun stories that can possibly happen in their real lives. It would enhance children's interests.

Purposes- I would recommend this book to third graders.
- According to common core, third graders have learned counting numbers, addition and subtraction during their previous two years. Thus, they are ready to learn multiplication and division. By reading this book, children can practice addition and subtraction as well as they learn the new concepts, which are multiplication and division.
- This book has many pictures that can give directions to solve math problems to children.
- Each math problem has its story. For example, there is a story, " The Metric Lunch Bunch Food Fight." Children fight during their lunch time and they throw their foods to each other. While saying their actions, the author asks questions like "How many centimeters did each person's food fly?" and "What fraction of 1 kilogram did each person throw?" Also, at the bottom of each page, it shows how to solve those questions.
- As all stories are very unique and illustrated with humorous pictures, children would not feel boring while reading it and learning math concepts. For example, there is a short story "Bon Voyage!" It is about a story that a girl is going to Paris, France. She meets 11 elephants and each elephant has 7 plants. Then, each plant has 7 ants. The question is how many ants wound up in France? Next to sentences, there are elephants with plants and ants. Also, many things symbolize France like the Eiffel Tower.
- At the end of this book, there is a part that four children has their names starting with M, A, T, and H. They ask different math questions and show how to solve them. A teacher might ask children "Whose name starts with M, A, T, or H?" Then, the teacher might ask those children to make simple math questions. Other children who know answers can go to the children and give their answers to them.

[Marina]

This book is very simple written, but carries important content. Through this book, students can learn basic skills while reading about a boy who made more than 5 million dollars in one month, animal sleepover parties, cafeteria food fights etc. I think that this book can be used when transitioning one activity to another. It is joyful book that in my opinion would bring fun while learning basic concepts of math such as addition, subtraction etc.

[Gianna Romo]

This book would be great to have on hand as a "sponge" activity when we only have a few minutes before we transition to something else. The riddles are funny and short so we could discuss one or two riddles depending on how much time we have.

[MaryKay]

My husband and I worked through these riddles on a car trip. I wish there were more fun books like this one about elementary-school math.

[Kate Hastings]

Grades 2-5. Nonfiction Poetry Book. Rhyming songs and riddles reinforce math vocabulary. Math puzzles are also included. It all adds up to fun

[Tanya]

It is look a good book

[Heather]

Silly and fun. Puny and corny. Laugh and smile for miles
It has real math problems written with humor
It can help kids look at math in a new way