Shaping Up Summer

by Lizann Flatt

What if animals and plants knew maths, just like us? Would spiders draw pictures in their webs? Would narwhals sort blocks of ice by shape? Would insects know what's above and what's below? In Shaping Up Summer , nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of geometry, symmetry, and spatial sense. Maths in Nature is a lovely four book series, which explores seasonal and natural beauty through maths concepts, which are made engaging with energetic and colourful paper collage illustrations, poetic language and thoughtful questions. Each book also includes nature notes at the end, which give more information about the animals and plants featured in the seasonal scenes. Colourful, cut- paper collage art uniquely evokes the natural world, while two levels of text - one a lyrical story, the other asking children to problem-solve - bring the reader to a full understanding of the maths concept being covered. The engaging "What if?" format of these informational picture books is sure to delight five- to seven-year-olds.

32 pages, Hardcover

Published June 22, 2017

About the author

Lizann Flatt has written many nonfiction books and numerous short stories and poems for kids. Her latest picture book series includes COUNTING ON FALL, SORTING THROUGH SPRING, SIZING UP WINTER, SHAPING UP SUMMER. What if animals knew math? The series invites kids to practice primary math skills and learn a bit about nature. Her LET'S GO! THE STORY OF GETTING FROM THERE TO HERE is the history of transportation in North America. It was selected as the Canadian Children's Book Centre's TD Grade One Giveaway book in 2009 and given to over 400,000 grade one kids in Canada. Lizann's work has also appeared in LADYBUG, BABYBUG, and HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN magazines. She was formerly the editor of Canadian children’s magazine CHICKADEE. Today she lives in rural Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.