Missing Math a Number Mystery

by Loreen Leedy

Cute book with manipulatives

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Number, Mystery, Counting

Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Loreen Leedy is the author and illustrator of over 40 picture books with math, science, language arts, and other curriculum content. Her books showcase information in a kid-friendly format, often with characters and entertaining stories.

Honors and awards for her books include: ALA Notable Book, Science Books and Films finalist, Reading Rainbow feature book, Chicago Library Best of the Best, many Scholastic Book Fair selections, Florida Book Award, Parent's Choice Award, many Junior Library Guild selections, and Outstanding Science Trade Book by the National Science Teachers Association.

Loreen has spoken at hundreds of schools and many conferences such as the International Reading Association, the American Library Association, the Mazza Summer Conference, and the UVU Engaged Reading Forum.

She lives in central Florida with her husband Andy, who is a scientist and a cat named Knickers who has an easily triggered purrometer. They love to travel, read, and watch movies.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good children's book about the importance of numbers. Nicely done.

[Cynthia Gutzwiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cute book about the importance of numbers. One day in this town a mighty wind came up and all the numbers started leaving. There are many ways we use numbers in every day life. They tried to write down numbers but the wind took them off the page. They put their best detective in town on the case. Football games stopped being played because you couldnt keep score. Money had no meaning. No mail could be sent, there were no house numbers. There were no more birthdays because there was no calendar to tell when to go to school. No clock to tell you when to get yup. The town was in a mess. Where are there numbers in your room? What would you do if they were gone? What did the town do? You get to listen/read and find out what happens. You only have a few moments. There is no few in this town.
I borrowed this book on a Kindle Unlimited website and so can you.

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it a lot. This book asks the question, "How can we function in a world without math?" It's impossible. There would be no birthday parties if we didn't know the date, we would have no place to go if we had no time to get there, why have money when we don't know the amounts and how to spend it. What size do wear? How much do I weigh? We would have no answers if we had no math. So for those students who say why do we need math, we won't use it in real life, this book would be a perfect answer.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set out for the back-to-school setup at the library, I had to choose it because of my little man's obsession with numbers. This was a really fun way to learn about how important numbers and math are and what it might be like if there ever weren't numbers. Very catchy rhyming story, nice illustrations and plenty of dialogue and definitions for older kids who want more information. This one was a winner!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cool rhyming picture book to start children on the road to understanding all of the ways we use numbers in our society. It doesn't get into any adding/subtracting/etc., but rather points out how we use numbers on calendars, addresses, dates, phone numbers, and more.

When someone steals the numbers in a little town, everyone is confused because there is so much they can't do without them. The book explains words like "numberless," "estimate," "quantities," and "infinity."

[Rylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for kids who are learning about math and the significance of it. It goes into detail about what the world would be like without math. The big question in the book is how would you survive in a world without math, the answer is, it's impossible. This book doesn't include math facts or get into how to add and subtract. Instead, it shares how you use numbers; calendars, phones/ numbers, calculators, measuring cups, addresses, etc. This book is a catchy rhyming story that I think kids would really enjoy!

[Abby Nall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cute rhyming book about ways that we use numbers every day. Some of the examples are outdated (phone books and TV remotes) but it was written in 2008 and that's okay: it affords an opportunity to talk about advancing technology.
This was recommended as an enrichment book by First Grade Math with Confidence, and it was perfect for the purpose.

[zhang huizhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good

This book tell me math is very important,if there is no math, no body can do temperature,addition,subtraction...if there's no math no life,but don't forget language arts!if there is no language arts,you can't read a word

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't get on with the art.

Not a bad text for a counting book. It does gloss some of the harder words, like countless and estimate, but there are a lot of other asides that hurt its rhythm as a read aloud.

[Howard Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't take numbers for granted

The whole idea of numbers is taken for granted, we don't really see how important 0 thru 9 is....and that is all we need to know. Just different arrangements. Thanks for opening our eyes, it does make you think.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fine book, very elementary, Kindle version is hard to read

This is a nice little rhyming book, but was very hard to read in the Kindle version. We probably will not read it again.

[Hayley Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good read. It would be really useful to use with a class who are at the start of their maths journey as it introduces you to soo many areas where numbers are needed. It also gives a few definitions of maths terminology.

[Goshen PL Childrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for Storytime, March 8th
Theme: Math Stories

Awesome book that highlights all the things we need numbers for and what our lives would be without them.

[Courtney Poe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Age appropriate

My five year old said he loved it because numbers are used everywhere! The mystery aspect was fun and engaging.

[Candi Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun math mystery that teaches kids how important numbers and math really are.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute picture book!

Who stole the numbers? A great way of showing how numbers affect us every day in this fun read! It's a fun read!

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kindergartener enjoyed the rhyming and numbers and was excited about the whole book. If you are looking for a mystery there is no math to do lol.

[Concetta Kellough · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the numbers go missing from a town. Teaches young readers how we use numbers all the time and that we need them. Cute and useful.

[Cyndy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where did all of the numbers go? There are lots of things we can't do, if we don't have any numbers.

[G Saggu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice living book about math

Lovely story and great way to show numbers and math are everywhere around us and useful in our daily life.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

"5 stars! I really liked this book because it's a mystery about numbers." -Solo (5yrs)

"Read it again!!" (x6) -Peter (3yrs)

[MGaby P-M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute

Read it to my 5yo. It was a nice way to show him how numbers affect our everyday life.

Very cute. Why is amazon making me keep writting

[Amanda Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homeschool mama approved

This was a fun and cute book we used with our Math With Confidence curriculum. This kept my 5 year old engaged.

[Nanik Nur'aini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is cute. When the numbers are all disappeared and left in a completely mess.

[Paris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend this book for grades 2-5. In this book all the numbers in a town disappears. The book gives different ways numbers are important and used in everyday life. It points out some of the ways numbers are used such as, time on clocks, addresses on letters, days on a calender and much, much more. I would use this book to introduce number sense, to get students thinking about and appriciating the many uses of numbers.

[JustOneMoreBook.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shocked expressions, rhyming clamor and high contrast chaos create a dazzling disguise for this sneaky introduction to the importance of numbers.

You can listen in on our chat about this book on our Just One More Book! Children's Book Podcast.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

K+ A good read aloud.

Written in rhyme, it has an easy to read cadence. The illustrations are funny and and so are some of the side comments. When the detective is looking for the missing numbers and peers into a squirrel hole, he comments "lots of nuts but no numbers!", which got a few chuckles.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a humorous tale about missing numbers and the myriad ways in which our lives would be changed without them. The rhyming narrative is fun to read aloud and the illustrations are colorful. Overall, it's a good way to show how much we use numbers in our everyday lives. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son is really into numbers and so of course this is a favorite of his. It's very cute!

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun math book. Yes I said fun math book. I thought this was fun and really easy. This book is easy to read and would make a good read aloud for kids who say they don't need math. Grades 1+