Working with Fractions

by David A. Adler, Edward Miller (Illustrator)

Fractions are everywhere you look -- on the playground, at school, even at birthday parties! When it comes to counting money, playing games, or making sure you get your fair share of the pizza, fractions are there to help you. Add David A. Adler's handy text to Edward Miller's lively art and you get not just a fraction -- but a whole lot -- of fun.

Genres: Mathematics, Childrens, Picture Books, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 9, 2007

About the author

David Abraham Adler is an American children's author. He was born in New York City, New York in 1947. He graduated from Queens College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. For the next nine years, he worked as a mathematics teacher for the New York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his then-three-year-old nephew inspired Adler to write his first story, A Little at a Time, subsequently published by Random House in 1976. Adler's next project, a series of math books, drew on his experience as a math teacher. In 1977, he created his most famous character, Cam Jansen, originally featured in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, which was published that year.

Adler married psychologist Renee Hamada in 1973, and their first child, Michael, was born in 1977. By that time Adler had taken a break from teaching and, while his wife continued her work, he stayed home, took care of Michael, and began a full-time writing career.

Adler's son, Michael S. Adler, is now the co-author of several books with his father, including A Picture Book of Sam Adams, A Picture Book of John Hancock, and A Picture Book of James and Dolly Madison. Another son, Edward, was the inspiration for Adler's Andy Russell series, with the events described in the series loosely based on adventures the Adler family had with Edward's enthusiasm and his pets.

As of November 2008, Adler has three sons and two grandsons. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[James Vickery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fun book that models the concepts of fractions. The story shows and stresses to the reader that fractions are not just numbers but that fractions are presented everywhere. This book models how to add, multiply, subtract, and divide fractions. This book does a good job to share creative ways to show fractions.

[Megan Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as you look at the book, you know it is going to be about fractions, but also looking at the book you can tell the illustrations are going to be fun! This book is good to read to my children to introduce the math topic of fractions and how you use fractions everyday.

[Stephanie Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though the illustrations in this book are bright and lively, the text is somewhat the opposite. All the concepts for fractions are covered thoroughly, some better than others. The best page was when he took several examples of fractions he'd covered previously and drew out the numerator and denominator (for example, he had explained that 3/10 of balloons were red. He wrote 3/10 = and then showed the three red balloons above the line, and the 10 balloons under the line).

[Bryanna Rorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously front the title and cover, it’s going to be about fractions, but looking at the front you can tell the illustrations are going to be fun as well which would be great for kids who you might be wanting to introduce long math concepts and fractions too. This book in a super fun way informs the reader how to use fraction in everyday situations and what they are good for. It even starts to introduce some of a connecting topic like possibilities and part part whole.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to follow, repetitive, visual book about fractions.

[Sarah Hamad · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was terrible

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working With Fractions by David A. Adler is a mathematics book for children to learn and practice their fractions with the help of fun concepts and illustrations. Fractions can be found everywhere from birthday parties with people, pizza, and cake to counting money!

Counting books are used for the educational purpose of capturing the attention of a child and teaching them at the same time. David A. Adler used a birthday party as a way to interest children and teach them while having fun. The illustrations in Working With Fractions give children the ability to see what is being divided instead of just numbers on a page. Visualization of concepts are useful because children learn to associate the numbers and the text with an image and further develop their cognitive skills.

[Inna Nako · Rating 3 out of 5]

-great way to introduce fractions
-easy to read and explains vocabulary such as numerator and denominator
-engages the students in real life events where fraction would be found, such as parties and pizza
-a fun activity would be to have the students write fractions of events in the class, such as what fraction of the class are boys? girls? what fraction are wearing pants? shorts?
-another activity would be to create a fraction booklet or packet (one page would be halves, another would be thirds, and so on)
-great pictoral representations of the fractions so it would be easy for students to understand

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book educates the readers about the basic fraction concept. It teaches even the mathematical logic by using familiar items, like pizzas, coins and birthday cake. Also, this book introduces the addition and subtraction of the fractions. The illustrations are colorful and the narrative is fairly easy for children to understand. I consider this book as a fun book, because it takes all the stress away for children who are fearful to do math, especially fractions. The story demonstrates that fractions are just numbers; however these numbers have meaning for its place in the fraction. I think that this book would be a great facilitator to learn fractions.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an educational book about fractions, that teaches children the basic concepts using familiar items, like pizzas, coins and birthday cake. The illustrations are cartoonish and colorful and the narrative is fairly easy for children to understand, if a bit repetitive and wordy. Overall, I thought this was a good review for basic fractions and a good way to introduce adding and subtracting fractions as well as multiplying by one to change a fraction's numerator and denominator. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Salima Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book that shows students that fractions aren't just useful in school, but also in your everyday life. In this book students are able to see fractions at a birthday party, while eating pizza, and during everyday life. This book is very useful for all ages because it teaches children to add, subtract, and multiply fractions. A teacher can use this book before presenting the class with an opportunity to find fractions in their own classroom or even at home.

[Khadija Bensaadoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun and engaging book for teaching fractions! The book highlights how fractions can be part of anything it includes fractions using pizzas, cakes, a group of people, balloons..etc! It has wonderful pictures that describe each fraction. Activity: the students will draw a fraction from a bin and their task is to draw the fraction and use colors to show the part of the whole. Grades3-5.

[Japonika Finch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and overly engaging book for teaching fractions. This book highlights how fractions can be apart of anything. A few examples include fractions using pizzas, cakes, a group of people, balloons..etc. It has wonderful illustrations that brings details to each fraction. This book is really great for students in third through fifth grade.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fun way to introduce fractions. It shows that fractions are EVERYWHERE!! It also explains how to determine whether a fraction is larger or smaller and how to add, subtract and multiply fractions.

[Nivi Krishnakumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had great activities that you can use to teach all diverse types of students. This books helps you modify how you teach fractions to different levels of understanding. I would definitely recommend this book to any teacher to make it easier to teach fractions.

[Brandon Clifton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for a math lesson in which I will teach the kids how to add/subtract/multiply/divide fractions. We can reference this book when they need help with any of the above. Great book dealing with fractions!!

[Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time with this book and how to integrate it into building fractional understanding. Teaching fractions is a continuing struggle for math teachers and I do not know if this book is a method I would use.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introducing fractions... fractions are everywhere... fractions at birthday parties...

[Shelbey Rehg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would be awesome to teach fractions to children because they make fractions relatable to children's birthday parties and makes it fun.