Anne Miranda

The rhyming text is great -- very fun to read aloud. But I do have some hesitations about this book:

1. I'm not sure I understand how the lever freed the shapes from being tangled in the jungle gym. It looks like it somehow destroyed the jungle gym. Is that really a good solution? Especially considering it's referred to as "her" later in the text as though sentient. I will have to share this with some kids to find out if it's confusing to them.

2. As the Kirkus review points out, the female show more shapes have a bow and/or eyelashes, which is annoying. When my daughter was a toddler she insisted only girls have eyelashes. I was like, where are you getting this? And then I realized it's from cartoons like this. Male characters are neutral. Female characters have something added (usually eyelashes or a bow) to mark them as different. Sigh.

3. Do you really understand what a tetrahedron is from the illustration in this book? I certainly did not and had to look it up. It's a three-dimensional shape rendered as a small triangle inside a bigger triangle. I don't think it works.

4. My public library copy of the book has the book jacket taped on so I can't see the full endpapers. If an illustration is crucial to your book, please don't put it on the part of the endpapers that are covered by the jacket. show less

I found this to be a very cute story. I really enjoyed how the author took a very common nursery rhyme and built a story around it. I feel that children would really enjoy this book because they may very likely recognize the nursery rhyme and therefore become excited about and invested in the story. The illustrations and the layout of the text reflected the whimsicality of the story and brought the nursery rhyme to life. I believe that children would find the story entertaining and silly and show more that it would be a fun read for younger children. show less

"Monster Math," is a math-related children's book. The math concept the book addresses is counting, addition and subtraction. In addition, the author provides her readers with the opportunity to do math within the book. As I read this book, I was doing the math in my head and making predictions about what number comes next. The book begins with one monster, then two, three and so on until there are a total of ten monsters. Then, the monsters begin appearing ten at a time. When there are ten show more monsters, ten more appear - which makes twenty monsters. The monsters keep coming, from twenty to thirty, thirty to forty, and forty to fifty. Since fifty monsters is way too many, the mother begins to get rid of them. She shoos away forty of them, leaving ten monsters remaining. Out of the ten monsters left, five more leave. Then, another one departs, leaving only four monsters. One more leaves the house, so now there are three. Finally, two monsters leave the house and the party is done. The author then asks, "How many are left?" I believe that by asking this question in the story it challenges young children to use math in the story in a fun way. By doing this, the reader is staying engaged as well as having fun when doing math. Also, if children are able to figure out how many monsters are left, it shows that they understand the mathematical concept the author is expressing throughout the book. I would strongly recommend this book to teachers who are teaching their students lessons involving counting, addition and subtraction. I would also like to say that out of the six math-related children's books I have read, I believe this book is without a doubt, the best one. show less

This book was about a young monster who is having a birthday party. It starts with one and quickly gets out of control. There are too many monsters and they are getting shooed away. Little by little, the number of monsters goes down to just the birthday monster and parent. It is a very cute story and it would allow students in kindergarten or 1st grade to read along and count along with the teacher or parent. It is a fiction picture book and I would highly recommend this to everyone! show more Adorable book that has a great way to incorporate math into reading. Very fun! show less