Mathematickles!

Mathematickles!

By Betsy Franco

Illustrated by Steven Salerno

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, 2003

31 pages 

Poetry

"words + math + seasons + fun = mathematickles for everyone"

Mathematickles is an adorable poetry book that would tickle anyone's brain. Who would have ever thought of mixing poetry and math? Franco mixes words from the different seasons along with symbols and simple math concepts to create fun poems. This book creates an unique way to introduce poetry to any elementary student. 

"pumpkin - seeds + face = jack-o-lantern"

Salerno's illustrations are bright and colorful and would catch any child's attention. She uses watercolor and gouache to capture the beauty of each season from the eye of a child. Her illustrations use a double-spread and leave no section of the page untouched. The text is very informal, it is as if they created chaos among order.  The structure of the math among the chaos of the bright, colorful pictures and layout is a wonderful blend and completely appropriate and unexpected. 

"dandelions x wind = white wishes"

     This book is great for creating literacy across the curriculum. A picture book is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about math and it creates a nice break from the sometimes mundane math problems. This book could be used when studying about the seasons. It could also be used when studying different types of poems. It is a great example of how poetry follows a structure but also allows for a lot of freedom.

"feet - shoes + grass = barefoot"