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MathStart Level 2
Tally O'Malley: A Fun MathStart Story About Counting and Math Games for Children
“Kids, young and old, fall in love with math when they see how real-life and effortless it becomes thanks to these books.” --Kimberly D. Mueller, Ed.D., First Grade Teacher, Ashbrook School, Lumberton NJ Tally O'Malley is perfect for teaching tallying to first, second, and third graders. The O'Malleys are off to the beach! But it's a long, hot, boring drive. What can Eric, Bridget, and Nell do to keep busy? Play tally games, of course—counting up all the gray cars or green T-shirts they see. Whoever has the most marks at the end wins the game. Kids will love the story and the funny illustrations by Cynthia Jabar. Parents and other educators will love how the story and pictures make understanding comparisons a breeze—as well as the concrete examples of how math works! The book contains activities for adults to do with kids to extend math into their own lives! Math = Fun! Math skills are life skills, and the MathStart series supports success! MathStart's unique combination of stories, illustrations, and visual models helps teachers and parents in the teaching of math and provides all children with the opportunity to succeed. The math concepts taught in MathStart books conform to state and national standards. Level 1 is Pre-K–Kindergarten; Level 2 is Grades 1–3; Level 3 is Grades 2–4. The series follows math topics across grades so there is a foundational path to learning that runs through the levels. Help kids with their math skills plus their reading skills with the engaging and fun MathStart series!
40 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
160 books60 followersPICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com
I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.
I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.
I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.
MATHSTART
The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.
The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.
Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )
THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL
Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”
STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN
My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.
I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.
Each book is reviewed by a tea
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com
I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.
I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.
I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.
MATHSTART
The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.
The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.
Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )
THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL
Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”
STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN
My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.
I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.
Each book is reviewed by a tea
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
September 29, 2013
Tally O’Mally - Tallying by Stuart J.Murphy and illustrated by Cynthia Jabar
Published: 2004
Age range: 5 -7
Brief Synopsis:
The O’Malleys are going on a vacation to the beach by car. Mum and Dad, Siblings; Nell, Bridget, Eric and Shamrock the dog start to get restless on the long journey, until Mum suggests to play a tally game. Tallying colours of cars, T-shits and trains the 3 siblings compete against each other by trying to find the most data they are observing.
As Part of the ‘Maths Start’ series, which come in different levels, this book presents maths and its concepts as a fun and interactive story. Easy to read and follow with interesting art and illustrations. The story shows how to tally based on observations and how to make a tally chart, children can tally as they read and listen along.
My Opinion:
The book comes with some interesting tally related maths games to use along with the book. As a maths starter book I think it approaches data and data collection from an achievable level for early years and reception classes. It can also be used for year 1 and 2 classes to recap ways of organising data. It also reinforces counting in fives and is a good source for revisiting multiples of five.
Uses In The Classroom:
The book allows concepts of mode, mean, range, median to be introduced by the reader asking follow up questions based on the children’s own tally charts. This book forms a good resource to use for cross curricular activities across; maths, science, and literacy lessons. Ideally, the story is a ‘read aloud and follow’ book for the class and can be used before science and maths investigations. Overall the story allows children to develop and identify the skills of problem solving, operations with number and communicating findings.
Published: 2004
Age range: 5 -7
Brief Synopsis:
The O’Malleys are going on a vacation to the beach by car. Mum and Dad, Siblings; Nell, Bridget, Eric and Shamrock the dog start to get restless on the long journey, until Mum suggests to play a tally game. Tallying colours of cars, T-shits and trains the 3 siblings compete against each other by trying to find the most data they are observing.
As Part of the ‘Maths Start’ series, which come in different levels, this book presents maths and its concepts as a fun and interactive story. Easy to read and follow with interesting art and illustrations. The story shows how to tally based on observations and how to make a tally chart, children can tally as they read and listen along.
My Opinion:
The book comes with some interesting tally related maths games to use along with the book. As a maths starter book I think it approaches data and data collection from an achievable level for early years and reception classes. It can also be used for year 1 and 2 classes to recap ways of organising data. It also reinforces counting in fives and is a good source for revisiting multiples of five.
Uses In The Classroom:
The book allows concepts of mode, mean, range, median to be introduced by the reader asking follow up questions based on the children’s own tally charts. This book forms a good resource to use for cross curricular activities across; maths, science, and literacy lessons. Ideally, the story is a ‘read aloud and follow’ book for the class and can be used before science and maths investigations. Overall the story allows children to develop and identify the skills of problem solving, operations with number and communicating findings.
Read
April 23, 2010This is a great book to use during math. This book helps teach students about tally marks. I have loved all of the books I have read from this series so far. I can't wait to read more of them!
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May 11, 2021Two picturebooks that address different mathematical concepts
Title (italicize): Tally O’Malley
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator (if separate from author): Cynthia Jabar
Genre: Children's literature, Children's non-fiction literature
Theme(s): Math
Opening line/sentence (type directly from text): The O’Malley’s were ready to go on vacation.
Brief Book Summary (2-3 sentences in your own words): The O’Malley family goes on vacation and the three kids get impatient while waiting in the car and in line for food. They play a tally game where they pick an object and a color an each kid tallys their own color. The winner of each round is called ‘Tally O’Malley’.
Response to Two Professional Reviews (3-4 sentences in your own words): Kirkus Reviews stated how the introduction of the tally game improved the mood of the kids and parents, which made me think how the game could be introduced in a classroom. The review also mentioned that the game was both a distraction and a dose of learning.
Tell Me Framework (4 sentences in your own words):
Like(s): I really liked the illustrations in this book, it made the book seem more fun and kept it cute.
Dislike(s): I wish there was less negativity from sibling to sibling.
Patterns(s): The tally game was repeated three times
Puzzle(s): How often do the O’Malley’s play the tally game?
Consideration of Instructional Application (3-4 sentences in your own words): This book could be read during a counting lesson of even a sorting lesson. If students are given objects and told to separate them by color, this book could then be read and the children could then tally each color.
Title (italicize): Tally O’Malley
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator (if separate from author): Cynthia Jabar
Genre: Children's literature, Children's non-fiction literature
Theme(s): Math
Opening line/sentence (type directly from text): The O’Malley’s were ready to go on vacation.
Brief Book Summary (2-3 sentences in your own words): The O’Malley family goes on vacation and the three kids get impatient while waiting in the car and in line for food. They play a tally game where they pick an object and a color an each kid tallys their own color. The winner of each round is called ‘Tally O’Malley’.
Response to Two Professional Reviews (3-4 sentences in your own words): Kirkus Reviews stated how the introduction of the tally game improved the mood of the kids and parents, which made me think how the game could be introduced in a classroom. The review also mentioned that the game was both a distraction and a dose of learning.
Tell Me Framework (4 sentences in your own words):
Like(s): I really liked the illustrations in this book, it made the book seem more fun and kept it cute.
Dislike(s): I wish there was less negativity from sibling to sibling.
Patterns(s): The tally game was repeated three times
Puzzle(s): How often do the O’Malley’s play the tally game?
Consideration of Instructional Application (3-4 sentences in your own words): This book could be read during a counting lesson of even a sorting lesson. If students are given objects and told to separate them by color, this book could then be read and the children could then tally each color.
June 7, 2020
Tally O'Malley is a great book to teach simple counting skills to younger children. The book starts off with the O'Malleys getting ready for a trip. The book follows the family on their journey to their destination and along the way, they play several tally games to pass the time. The three children each choose a color and then the object that they will all be counting. This book is fun and can help to teach students counting, as well as gives them a fun game to play with their family on long car rides; a great family connection!
September 12, 2024
This is a fun little math story that demonstrates how a tally system works. While on a road trip, a clever Mom has each of her kids choose a different color. Then she tells them to find as many cars (or another object) of that color as possible. After a predetermined amount of time, the person with the most tallies gets to wear a communal medal. I appreciated Mom's creative and educational way of keeping her kids busy.
June 3, 2018
This is a good book to use with young children when teaching them about Tally Charts. It is interactive and gives a clear view of how and why tally charts are used.
March 18, 2017
I accidentally discovered an adorable children’s book, Tally O’Malley, by Stuart J. Murphy and fell in love with it. The O’Malley family is off on a vacation to the beach. This family of five uses a tally game to keep their children amused during long car trips. In addition to his story line, the colorful illustrations definitely contribute to the story telling. I recommend for early elementary teachers to add to their classroom libraries. As a read aloud story helps students to help students understand data collection. I particularly appreciated the way Mr. Murphy uses the older sister to demonstrate how to actually do a tally. For me this was particularly clever of Mr. Murphy—students teaching students—works well.
September 23, 2024
The O'Malley's are on a car trip, and after a long time, they get VERY bored. Mom helps by suggesting that they play a game. A tally game! It's simple. Nell and her two siblings, Bridget and Eric, all pick a color and agree on an object to count. The one with the most tally marks at the end of the game wins! Nell always picks her favorite color red, but there are never a lot of objects that actually ARE red. Will she stick with her favorite color and finally win?
This is 100% the most-read book in my whole-entire house. I loved this book to pieces and I am honestly surprised that all of its pages are still intact. It really helped me when I was first learning how to tally!
Tally O'Malley is the perfect book to keep younger kids engaged and learning over the summer!
I hope you love this book as much as I do! Thank you so much for reading my review! Follow @bronteandwilder on Instagram for fun book recommendations!
This is 100% the most-read book in my whole-entire house. I loved this book to pieces and I am honestly surprised that all of its pages are still intact. It really helped me when I was first learning how to tally!
Tally O'Malley is the perfect book to keep younger kids engaged and learning over the summer!
I hope you love this book as much as I do! Thank you so much for reading my review! Follow @bronteandwilder on Instagram for fun book recommendations!
December 12, 2011
We've read several of the MathStart books by Stuart J. Murphy and we have liked them all. Each has a different math principle and they range in levels from one to three. The stories are interesting and have colorful illustrations. But they also incorporate a simple math concept that is depicted in a way that children can easily understand. I love it!
This story follows a family on their way to a vacation at the beach. During the long roadtrip they play a tally game to pass the time. It's a fun story and the sibling rivalry is humorous. We enjoyed reading this story together.
This story follows a family on their way to a vacation at the beach. During the long roadtrip they play a tally game to pass the time. It's a fun story and the sibling rivalry is humorous. We enjoyed reading this story together.
April 18, 2012
The O'Malleys are off to the beach! But it's a long, hot, boring drive. What can Eric, Bridget, and Nell do to keep busy? Play tally games, of course -- counting up all the gray cars or green T-shirts they see. Whoever has the most marks at the end wins the game.
Eric wins the first game. Bridget wins the second. It seems like poor Nell will never win a game! But Nell has the luck of the Irish on her side, and a surprise in store for her big brother and sister.
In my classroom, I use tally charts often. Ex: Ice cream reward party we will tally our favorite ice cream and ice cream toppings so that we can see which of each flavor I would buy.
Eric wins the first game. Bridget wins the second. It seems like poor Nell will never win a game! But Nell has the luck of the Irish on her side, and a surprise in store for her big brother and sister.
In my classroom, I use tally charts often. Ex: Ice cream reward party we will tally our favorite ice cream and ice cream toppings so that we can see which of each flavor I would buy.
April 4, 2012
This books is good for teaching a lesson on tallies and graphs. A family goes on vacation and to pass the time they play the tally game where they each pick a certain object and they each get a certain color; cars-blue. They then keep track of how many they see with tallies. You can use this to teach children how to do tally marks and how they are used. This can also be used to teach graphing. They take the tallies and turn them into a graph.
October 9, 2012
This book is great for a math lesson introducing tally marks and incorperating graphing. I would begin the lesson by telling the students the uses of tally marks and how to make them (4 lines and 1 across makes 5). I would read this book and have the students make the tally marks on their white boards. I will model how to this for them. At the end, I would have them graph the tally makes according the who won the games in the book.
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June 29, 2015I love this series of books. It teaches math concepts so well. We read this book during Valentines Day, so we created an activity that incorporated hearts. Each student was tasked with picking up the most paper hearts out of a basket and tallying them up. The class would count aloud with the student and that student would also tally as they went along. It's a great introduction into using print within the classroom environment.
April 16, 2012
This book is about a family who plays a fun tally game during a road trip. Nell never wins until the end; she gets so happy that she tells everyone to call her Tally O'Malley. This is a great book about tallying, and it introduces a fun game that can be used in the classroom. This is appropriate for ages six and up.
November 12, 2012
This is a great book to start a lesson about tally marks. Tallying is so important for math learning. It gives kids a head start in counting by fives and it is a good basis for charts and graphs. Nice message for parents in there about entertaining the kids on long car trips, and it really shows kids how to tally.
September 14, 2013
While on the way to the beach the O'Malleys play a game to pass the time. They use tally marks to keep track of how many times they see a certain object. The person who has the most tallys wins the game! I like this book because it makes math look fun and it shows students how math has real life applications. This is a great book to use when doing tally marks and graphing in math.
March 16, 2014
In Tally O'Malley a family is going on vacation and keep tallies of different things they see on the way. Each child is looking for a different color of the object such as blue cars, green shirts, and black trains. This would be a great nonfiction book to use when introducing tally marks. It is interactive and concrete. It is also relatable to young children.
April 16, 2012
What's a better way to play game on a long boring drive!
The O'Malley enjoyed tallying games. Counting different color of cars,
T-shirt, and etc. This book is both entertaining and educational; appr.
for 1st and 2nd grade.
The O'Malley enjoyed tallying games. Counting different color of cars,
T-shirt, and etc. This book is both entertaining and educational; appr.
for 1st and 2nd grade.
May 15, 2013
Tally O'Malley is a low second grade level book that teaches using tally marks to keep track of numbers. This could go hand-in-hand with skipcounting. I love to have books that go with math lessons. This is a light and easy math concept book.
September 19, 2015
This book is from a series of children's books designed to teach math concepts within an entertaining book. This one teaches tally marks. The kids were really engaged when I read it to them (they were first graders) and I thought it worked well.
August 19, 2008
A fun book about tallying. My 4 year old loved it and now often asks to play tally games in the car. A great way to introduce this math concept.
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September 30, 2009sibling rivalry sux
February 16, 2012
Family Vacation. Kids fight. Count cars. Get to wear a neclace. Everyone gets a chance to win.
July 17, 2012
Great way to introduce tally marking. Which will lead to data and graphs. The students would definitely be able to relate to the storyline, a young girl going on a boring trip with their parents.
July 20, 2012
Help students with data and graphs
September 28, 2012
This is a great book to use for teaching Tallying with your students. I would recommend this book for any teacher and parents as well.
December 3, 2012
I've used this book to integrate math and literature in my field placement. The book is great for introducing and reinforcing using tally marks. Great illustrations as well.
October 2, 2013
Cute books explains how to use tally marks and models how to use tally marks through the O'malley family's tally mark game in their trip to the beach.
October 16, 2014
I can definitely see using this book in an early elem. classroom. This is one of those great books that connect 2 usually separate disciplines, literature and math.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews