NOVELIST
Desperate Librarians or . . . A Few Ideas to Share With Children, Fall 2015, STEAMing Along with Books
Desperate Librarians... A Few New Ideas to Share with Children by Judy Freeman
STEAMing Along with Books
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math! We celebrate these in our schools and libraries nowadays. While we revel in revelatory nonfiction for the left sides of our children's brains, we also find ways to integrate art, music, and imagination for the right sides. The inventions and discoveries unveiled in these exceptional informational and biographical picture books are balanced with an ongoing truth, exemplified in B.J. Novak's fallonthefloorinhysterics picture book, The Book with No Pictures: Whatever you're reading aloud, you must Always Read with Expression!
In this article...
Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature by Sarah C. Campbell The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak Locomotive by Brian Floca Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman
For each title below, you'll find a summary and then a series of what I call "Germs" small, pithy, useful, do able ideas you can "germinate" as you see fit and integrate into your own story hours or lesson plans. These might include worksheets, writing prompts, songs, creative drama activities, craft suggestions, or ways to use the book across the school curriculum. Next is a list of related titles, arranged thematically, that you can pull together for units, readalouds, readalones, or book discussion sessions, or to hand out to children when they ask, "Do you have another good book as good as the one you just read to us?"
Science Mysterious patterns: finding fractals in nature By: Sarah C. Campbell, illus. by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell Boyds Mills, 2014 Grades 1 6 Investigate fractals, natural shapes in nature from flowers to riverbeds to lightning in which each shape consists of smaller parts that look like the whole.
With the movie "Frozen" a hotticket item for children, who still sing "Let It Go" with unrelenting gusto, what kid doesn't recognize this line? "My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around." Do they know what fractals are? Probably not. Here's a book that explains what Elsa was singing about.
When Common Core says to use more nonfiction with kids, this is just what we're looking for: a book that explains an unfamiliar concept so elegantly and clearly that it changes the way you look at the world. The simple but illuminative, informational narrative is paired with dramatic, fullpage color photographs that explore a type of shape that wasn't even named until 1975, when French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (19242010) coined it as part of his study of natural shapes. In a fractal, each shape has smaller parts that look like the whole.
After a brief look at common geometric shapes, both manmade and in nature, the text proceeds to describe other natural shapes that are "rough, bristly, and bumpy," including a stalk of broccoli, a fern frond, and a tree. Each irregular shape subdivides into smaller and smaller parts in repeating patterns that mirror the whole structure. Other fractals discussed include lightning, the Colorado River, the Grand Tetons, and even our lungs. In response, children will start looking for fractals all around them.
Germ for Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature
There are no other books on the subject for children as of now, and this one, with its clear, concise writing is a keeper. You'll also want to pair it with the author's terrific companion book, Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature.
Back matter includes directions on how to make your own Sierpinski triangle (which grades 46 will enjoy reading about in Shelley Pearsall's novel, All of the Above, about a seventh grade class's attempts to build the world's biggest paper pyramid, a "Stage 7" Sierpinski tetrahedron). There's also a onepage bio of Mandelbrot written by Michael Frame, a math professor at Yale who worked with him for many years, which includes a few facts about manmade structures that are fractals, including the wiring of the Internet and air conditioners. In an intriguing explanation of a radar invisibility cloak, there is this startling statement: "Harry Potter's invisibility cloak would have been made of fractals." Wow!
You will find Benoit Mandelbrot's 2010 TED talk, "Fractals and the Art of Roughness" to be utterly fascinating: www.ted.com/talks/benoit_mandelbrot_fractals_the_art_of_roughness?language=en. Though it's mostly too technical for children, you can show excerpts and let them get to meet this brilliant and engaging man, known as "the father of fractals." For a simpler look at fractals, try "Fractals in Nature" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZL0SLf04yM.
Check out this fabulous website, fractalfoundation.org, a real public service for educators and students, with the subtitle "Inspiring Interest in Science, Math, and Art." You'll find videos, photos, student work, photographs, lesson plans, a blog, and more. Here's what they say about themselves: "The Fractal Foundation was formed in 2003, as an outgrowth of the Albuquerque based "Chaos Club." Since then, we have taught fractals to over 24,000 children and 15,000 adults. Based in Albuquerque, most of our activities have thus far taken place in New Mexico, but they continue to spiral outward and upward." You can explore the mathematicsbased Mandelbrot set and 23 other fractals when you download the free XaoS software that allows kids (and adults) to zoom in or out of fractals.
Aesthetically, looking at examples of a Mandelbrot zoom is positively psychedelic and beautiful, integrating science, math, technology, and art. Observing the wondrous connections there are between nature on Earth and throughout the universe (a spiral shell, a spiral in a sunflower, a spiral in the human inner ear, a hurricane, a spiral galaxy) is a humbling and fascinating experience for us all.
Other Books by Sarah C. Campbell Campbell, Sarah C. Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. Boyds Mills, 2010. Campbell, Sarah C. Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator. Boyds Mills, 2008.
Other Books about Patterns in Nature and Math Esbensen, Barbara Juster. Echoes for the Eye: Poems to Celebrate Patterns in Nature. HarperCollins, 1996. Franco, Betsy. Bees, Snails, & Peacock Tails: Patterns and Shapes . . . Naturally. McElderry, 2008. Pearsall, Shelley. All of the Above. Little, Brown, 2006. Sidman, Joyce. Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature. Houghton Mifflin, 2011. Technology and Art
The book with no pictures By: B. J. Novak Dial, 2014 Grades Preschool 4 "It might seem like no fun to have someone read you a book with no pictures. It probably seems boring and serious." Not true this is the funniest book of the year!
Introduce this title to your children thusly: "You know how we've looked at many picture books with no words, such as Tuesday by David Wiesner and all of his other books, where the pictures tell the whole story? Well, today, we're going to look at a picture book with no pictures. No, not a chapter book with no pictures. You know what that looks like. I'm going to read to you a picture book with no pictures. No pictures at all. Have you ever seen a picture book like that? No? There's always a first time." Then hold up the all white cover, on which is printed, in huge black type, The Book with No Pictures, and, in smaller blue letters at the bottom, the author's name. That's it. No cover picture.
Chaos will ensue when you open this outrageously ridiculous picture book that is bereft of illustrations but filled with a whole lot of crazy words you are going to have to read OUT LOUD and with a STRAIGHT FACE while your gasping listeners roll on the floor in hysterics. I'm giving you a headsup here so you know what to expect. As it states, in an oversized, bold, serif font, set against a stark white background, "This is a book with no pictures. It might seem like no fun to have someone read you a book with no pictures. It probably seems boring and serious. Except . . . Here is how books work: Everything the words say, the person reading the book has to say."
And that is where the subversive part begins. The unseen narrator puts words on the page "BLORK" and "BLUURF" and "I am a monkey who taught myself to read" that you, the grownup, have to read out loud, "No matter what." The book makes you sing a stupid song, tricks you into saying the word "BooBooButt" aloud, and ends up with an entire doublepage spread of very silly nonsense words that you have no choice but to read out loud. With expression. And when you finish, the kids are going to make you read it all over again.
Germ for The Book with No Pictures Because there are no illustrations, the use of interesting and colorful fonts and their arrangement on the page become a substitute for the pictures. If you're smart, and if your kids are old enough to read, make them read the book aloud, one pair per page, while you sit back and laugh. It's only fair. You can use the book as an introduction to the importance of reading aloud and a minilesson on how and why to always read with expression. Children can also do illustrations for the book. Imagine what they can do with lines like, "I am a ROBOT MONKEY" or "And my head is made of blueberry pizza."
A silly book deserves a silly nonsense song. Here's one, with motions even, that you sing slowly at first, and then sing faster and faster until you are zooming through it. If you don't know the song, "A Ram Sam Sam," you can find a perfectly delightful version of it on YouTube done by The Learning Station, from their CD, "Action! Fun! Dance! for Kids." They have added a very cute coda to the original verse ("arms up high . . ."). Find their video, performed by a line of children, at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBttxAMxaXE
A RAM SAM SAM
A ram sam sam, (slap thighs with hands three times) A ram sam sam, (slap thighs with hands three times) Guli guli guli guli guli, (hands in fists, roll arms) Ram sam sam. (slap thighs with hands three times) A ram sam sam, (slap thighs with hands three times) A ram sam sam, (slap thighs with hands three times) Guli guli guli guli guli, (hands in fists, roll arms) Ram sam sam. (slap thighs with hands three times)
A rafi, a rafi, (put hands together, on one side of face, and tilt head to one side, like you're sleeping) Guli guli guli guli guli, (hands in fists, roll arms) Ram sam sam. (slap thighs with hands three times) A rafi, a rafi, (put hands together, on other side of face, and tilt head to other side, like you're sleeping) Guli guli guli guli guli, (hands in fists, roll arms) Ram sam sam. (slap thighs with hands three times)
Arms up high, reach for the sky; (pump fists and arms into air) If you want to be a Ram Sam Master, You've got to go a little faster.
FINAL: Arms up high, reach for the sky, you went a little faster, (slowly) Now you're a Ram Sam Master.
Maren Vitali, librarian at Milltown School in Bridgewater, NJ, created a writing and technology unit inspired by The Book with No Pictures with her first graders. After reading aloud and laughing over the text, they created their own "Book with No Pictures." Using the book as a mentor text, she created a template in Microsoft Word, adapting the beginning of the book's narrative. Then she had the children brainstorm silly sounding words, awful pizza flavors, dreadful flavors of ice cream, and crazy zoo animals, which she listed on a chart. Each child then filled in the worksheet below as possible additions to a class book. Maren then collaborated with the computer teacher, Dianne Kolavitch, who worked with the children on typing in one of their words, choosing different fonts, colors, and sizes, and creating a page to be inserted into the new book. Click here for a PDF of the worksheet
The prototype below was created in 2014 by Maren's own sons, Aidan, then ten, and Kelan, then seven. This project is a blast for grades 14. You can have each child contribute one or more pages. The completed book can be printed out for students to take home and have their parents read to them or vice versa. Hilarity will ensue. Maren emailed me in June, 2015 to say, "I have to tell you, the first graders that I did the project with still tell me it was their favorite project from this year. I gave each teacher a class book with all their work in it and the kids tell me they read it ALL the time!"
and here for the prototype book.
Want to watch the author/actor/comedian/screenwriter read this book to an assembly of kids and see what you're in for? Try this:
Other wacky metapicturebook fourthwallbreakers about how books work include Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett and We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems.
Other Wacky Picture Books About Books Barnett, Mac. Chloe and the Lion. DisneyHyperion, 2012. Bingham, Kelly. Z Is for Moose. Greenwillow, 2012. Catalanotto, Peter. Ivan the Terrier. Atheneum, 2007. Child, Lauren. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? DisneyHyperion, 2003. Drescher, Henrik. Simon's Book. Lothrop, 1983. Garland, Michael. Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook. Dutton, 2003. Gerstein, Mordicai. A Book. Roaring Brook, 2009. Lehrhaupt, Adam. Warning: Do Not Open This Book! Simon & Schuster, 2013. Mack, Jeff. Duck in the Fridge. Two Lions, 2014. Sheth, Kashmira. Tiger in My Soup. Peachtree, 2013. Smith, Lane. It's a Book. Roaring Brook, 2010. Stein, David Ezra. Interrupting Chicken. Candlewick, 2010. Tullet, Hervé. Press Here. Chronicle, 2011. Willems, Mo. We Are in a Book! Hyperion, 2010. Engineering and Art
Locomotive By: Brian Floca, illus. by the author Atheneum/Richard Jackson, 2013 Grades K 6 2014 Caldecott Medal; 2014 Sibert Honor Take an unforgettable train trip from Omaha to Sacramento in the summer of 1869.
A weeklong train trip from Omaha to Sacramento in the summer of 1869 is the subject of the 2014 Caldecott Medal book, awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Full disclosure: I was a proud member of the 2014 Caldecott Committee, and Locomotive, in my opinion, was the most spectacular picture book of the year.
Start out by examining the detailed front endpapers, which show a map of the journey to come, and then the title page with a daguerreotype of a family and a Western Union telegraph from Papa to his wife, Elizabeth Peckham, telling her to come to California as soon as she is able. Impressive illustrations on the cream colored oversized pages are done in watercolor, ink, acrylic, and gouache, while the text often incorporates ornate antiquestyle lettering of onomatopoeic words and Floca's own cursive handwriting in labeled illustrations and dialogue balloons.
The poetic and descriptive present tense, secondperson, free verse narrative begins, "HERE IS A ROAD / made for crossing the country, / a new road of rails / made for people to ride." On that first page is a rounded painting of the rails stretching to a point in a desolate landscape of scrub and distant green mountains, with telegraph poles lining one side. On the next page, you witness the rails being laid by a diverse group of rail workers swinging massive hammers. The real journey begins on the following page as Mrs. Peckham, in a long dress, shawl, and bonnet, and her son and daughter, unnamed in the text, wait outside the Omaha train station for the mighty locomotive to arrive with a CLANGCLANGCLANG and a WHOOOOOOO.
The first view of the ornate train, with its red metal apron and large blue lantern atop the engine which sports a pair of antlers is thrilling. Meet the crew, including the brakemen, fireman, engineer, and blue suited conductor holding his pocket watch as the passengers board. Up in the cab, the fireman shovels coal into the firebox. A gorgeous doublepage closeup of the red wheels with their pistons and rods gives the feel of the grandeur of the train as it huffs, hisses, bangs, clanks, and starts to move. When you finally see the fivecar train passing through the Great Plains, it is dwarfed by the landscape. On board, we see the stove that keeps passengers warm, and even learn how the "convenience" aka the toilet works:
"It's tricky sometimes to use it, when the train is rolling, running, lurching, leaning left and right.
But do the best that you can! Don't wait for the train to stop It's rude to use the toilet when the train is sitting at a station. (There is no plumbing here, there is only a hole in the floor.)"
The passengers stop at a railroad restaurant where the menu lists buffalo steak, antelope chops, and chicken stew. "If the chicken tastes like prairie dog, don't ask why," says the text, with an illustration of the Peckham boy examining his food, and a balloon caption of him saying, "Hmmm."
Exquisite spot art in pen and ink and watercolors show how the train is maintained by the crew and depict towns and natural wonders along the way Castle Rock, Devil's Slide, Promontory Summit, where the golden spike joined tracks from the East and West with the most dramatic being the narrow, rickety Dale Creek Bridge where the top speed is four mph. At long last, the train crosses the Sierra Nevada and heads down the mountains to end in Sacramento, where the Peckham family reunites with Papa and continues on to their new home, San Francisco. What a trip it has been! Germ for Locomotive
Floca's exhaustive research for this book is detailed in the extensive notes at the back. You're going to want to pair this marvel of a meganonfiction picture book readaloud with Elisha Cooper's modern 21st century version of the trip in his evocative picture book, also done in watercolors, Train. Starting with a redstriped Commuter Train, cross the country from New York to California by Passenger Train, Freight Train, Overnight Train, and HighSpeed Train.
The first thing these books make you want to do is take a train trip. This may or may not be a possibility for a class trip. The second thing it gets you itching to do is paint with watercolors, which is a whole lot more possible. Have children create a painting of the inside and outside of something they observe closely a car or van, the school, a grocery store and capture its physical essence, and portray people, too. You'll want to celebrate children's love for trains with the imaginative picture book, How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton. As the boy in the book says, “Lucky for you, this handy guidebook contains everything you need to know to choose, track, and train your very own pet train.”
Here's the best train chant ever, learned from Kristy Raffensberger, a crackerjack librarian at the New York Public Library. As Kristy says, "Get your train arms ready." Start slowly, and speed it up with each line.
Train! Choo choo choo choo, choo choo choo choo (alternate your arms at your sides in a circle, like a train; or for extra oomph, add your legs, too, stepping in time) Mushroom, mushroom, mushroom, mushroom (same arms, a little faster) Cheese and crackers, cheese and crackers, cheese and crackers, cheese and crackers (still faster) Chicken fricassee, chicken fricassee, chicken fricassee, chicken fricassee (very fast) SOUP, SOUP, SOUP, SOUP (using a high voice, like a train whistle, and pulling on an imaginary cord each time you say the word) Other Books About Trains Booth, Philip. Crossing. Candlewick, 2001. Cooper, Elisha. Train. Orchard, 2013. Crews, Donald. Freight Train. Greenwillow, 1978. Eaton, Jason Carter. How to Train a Train. Candlewick, 2013. Hubble, Patricia. Trains: Steaming! Pulling! Huffing! Marshall Cavendish, 2005. Kimmel, Eric A. Stormy's Hat: Just Right for a Railroad Man. Farrar, 2008. Rinker, Sherri Duskey. Steam Train, Dream Train. Chronicle, 2013. Westcott, Nadine Bernard. I've Been Working on the Railroad: An American Classic. Hyperion, 1996. Other Books Written and/or Illustrated by Brian Floca Cox, Lynne. Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas. Illus. by Brian Floca. Schwartz & Wade, 2014. Floca, Brian. Five Trucks. Atheneum, 2014. ___. Lightship. Atheneum, 2007. ___. Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11. Atheneum, 2009. Greenberg, Jan. Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring. Illus. by Brian Floca. Roaring Brook/Flash Point, 2010. More Engineering and Art
Mr. Ferris and his wheel By: Kathryn Gibbs Davis, illus. by Gilbert Ford Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014 Grades 2 5 For the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, 34yearold mechanical engineer, George Washington Ferris, designed an innovative new structure, a massive wheel 835 feet in circumference, rising 265 feet above the ground, that he called a Monster Wheel.
Ten months before the 1893 Chicago World's Fair was to open, a nationwide contest was announced. The challenge? Who could come up with a structure that would be even more spectacular than the breathtaking Eiffel Tower (which, at 81 stories, was then the world's tallest building), the star attraction at the Paris World's Fair (aka the Exposition Universelle) the previous year. Thirtyfouryearold mechanical engineer, George Washington Ferris designed an innovative new type of structure, made with a new type of metal a steel alloy that would be both stronger and lighter than the Eiffel Tower. He presented his design to the fair's construction chief who told him the structure would be "so flimsy it would collapse." George retorted, "You are an architect, sir. I am an engineer."
In desperation, a mere five months before opening day, the judges agreed to George's plan but refused to pay him for any of the materials he would need. He used his own savings, persuaded a few investors to contribute, and started construction in January, 1893, in one of Chicago's coldest winters ever. Digging and dynamiting 35 feet deep through frozen soil and quicksand, they finally managed to pour a foundation of concrete, inserting two steel towers with a gigantic axle between them. With more than 100,000 parts, workers labored nonstop to fit together all of the pieces "like a giant Lego toy." Based on the concept and design of the water wheels George observed growing up in Nevada, the massive wheel, 834 feet in circumference, rose 265 feet above the ground and glowed at night from its 3,000 electric light bulbs. A million and a half passengers paid 50 cents (about $13 in today's dollars) to ride in one of the 36 passenger cars, each holding 40 velvet seats. George called it a Monster Wheel, but everyone else called it a Ferris wheel. The fullbleed watercolor and ink illustrations on generous square pages loom large with period details of the engineering marvel, its creator, and the World's Fair. Germ for Mr. Ferris and His Wheel
On the back cover is a quote from Ferris: "I determined that the engineering profession should be represented by something that would stand as a monument." Ask your students what he meant by this. Did he succeed?
We tend to think, once we've read a book about something, that we know the whole story. But what is this on the Other Books about Ferris Wheels list below? Another competent and informative picture book biography, due out in Fall, 2015, about George Ferris, The Fantastic Ferris Wheel: The Story of Inventor George Ferris by Betsy Harvey Kraft, illustrated with dapper pictures done in crayon, ink, gouache, and pastel by Steve Salerno. Every bit as compelling as the Davis book, this will make a perfect compareand contrast lesson on how two books can be so vastly different in telling the same basic story. Kraft's text goes into more detail about exhibits and attractions at the world's fair, which was known as the Columbian Exposition of 1893. She chronicles the terrifying storm that overtook the fair on July 9 with gale force winds of 115 mph and a tornado that shattered windows at the exhibition's buildings. Ferris and his wife ran for the wheel and rode out the storm in one of its cars. As a newspaper reporter on the scene described it, ". . . The inventor had faith in his wheel . . . The beautiful wheel hardly shivered." You can read aloud both books and have listeners evaluate the coverage of information and facts, examine the two styles of writing, compare the illustrations, and finally, give their opinions of which one is the more successful book and why.
Because a 40page picture book can't tell every detail, and because no good deed ever seems to go unpunished, here's a bit of interesting information about Ferris' later life, not covered in both books. In writing this article, I looked up his dates and was startled to see that he died in 1896 at the age of 37. A quick look on Wikipedia provided the sordid ending: "After the fair closed, Ferris claimed that the exhibition management had robbed him and his investors of their rightful portion of the nearly $750,000 profit that his wheel brought in. He spent the next two years in litigation." And then he died, bankrupt, at age 37 of typhoid fever (or TB or suicide depending on which account you read). "His ashes remained at a Pittsburgh crematorium for over a year, waiting for someone to take possession of them." Oh, dear. At least his name lives on in bigger and better Ferris wheels.
Trivia Question for your students to research: What and where is the world's largest Ferris wheel? The London Eye? No. The London Eye was the tallest until 2009, at 443 feet, but now it's number four. Of the top ten, five are in China, one in Japan, one in Singapore, one in Australia. It's not one of those. As of March, 2014, the world's tallest, at 550 feet, is the High Roller in Las Vegas. At 12 feet per story, your kids will calculate that it's approximately the height of a 45story skyscraper. Although, the latest news report states that a taller wheel is in the works on both the New York Wheel in Staten Island, NY at 630 feet, with a completion date of 2017, and the Dubai Eye at 690 feet. Yowza! (See: mashable.com/2015/04/13/new yorkferriswheel.) Build a Ferris wheel out of Legos™ or Tinkertoys™ and have your young engineers design the next new thing.
For kids of all ages, share another feat of engineering (and beautiful bookmaking) with Torben Kuhlmann's impressive picture book Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse. To escape the dangerous new mechanical contraptions (aka mousetraps) that humans have been setting for mice, a bright and inquisitive German mouse sets out to escape Hamburg, Germany for faroff America. Observing bats flying through the sewer tunnels, the mouse decides he will construct wings and fly to America. His newlybuilt contraption needs more power, so the mouse experiments, adding first steam, then wings and rudders, wheels, and, finally, a powerful engine. The sepiatoned watercolor and pencil illustrations from the mouse's perspective are spectacular, including portraits of the enterprising mouse and his different flying contraptions, but also of massive ships, trains, and menacing owls.
For older students, grades 46, to pair fiction and nonfiction, read aloud or booktalk Richard Peck's historical novel, Fair Weather, where three kids attend the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with their aunt, and even ride on Mr. Ferris' amazing wheel. Other Books About Ferris Wheels Bodden, Valerie. Ferris Wheels. Creative Education, 2012. Kraft, Betsy Harvey. The Fantastic Ferris Wheel. Henry Holt, 2015. Lowell, Barbara. George Ferris, What a Wheel! Grosset, 2014. Peck, Richard. Fair Weather. Dial, 2001. Other Picture Books and/or Picture Book Biographies About Inventors Brown, Don. A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood & Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison. Houghton Mifflin, 2010. Krull, Kathleen. The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth. Knopf, 2009. Kuhlmann, Torben. Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse. NorthSouth, 2014. Old, Wendie. To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers. Clarion, 2002. Rosenstock, Barb. Ben Franklin's Big Splash: The Mostly True Story of His First Invention. Calkins Creek, 2014. St. George, Judith. So You Want to Be an Inventor? Philomel, 2002. Sweet, Melissa. Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. Houghton Mifflin, 2011. Mathematics and Art The boy who loved math: the improbable life of Paul Erdos By: Deborah Heiligman, illus. by LeUyen Pham Roaring Brook, 2013 Grades 3 6 In a vivacious numberfilled picture book biography of eccentric Hungarian mathematician, Paul Erdos (pronounced AIRdish), 19131996, we meet a man who was consumed by math.
Nicknamed "The Magician from Budapest" when he was only 20, Erdos was called Uncle Paul by math friends all over the world who recognized his genius. As a boy, he was devoted to his adoring Mama and cared for by his nanny, the longsuffering Fraülein, as the 2 women cut his meat, buttered his bread, dressed him, and tied his shoes. This left him with time to concentrate on the 1 thing he loved: numbers. Even at age 4, Paul could, given a person's birthdate, calculate in his head how many seconds that person had been alive. Note that the author uses numerals throughout the book, just as I have in my annotation.
His number 1 love was prime numbers, numbers that can only be divided by themselves and the number 1. There's an intriguing page of Paul as a young boy, standing on a ladder and circling the prime numbers on a wallsized chart called a Sieve of Eratosthenes (as explained in the Note from the Illustrator in the extensive back matter). In fact, every page of Pham's extraordinarily detailed fullbleed paintings incorporates numbers, equations, and geometric mathematical drawings. There's an amusing illustrated segment where 21yearold Paul was at dinner with friends in England and didn't know how to butter his own bread. "Finally he took his knife, put some butter on it, and spread it on his bread. Phew. He did it! 'It wasn't so hard,' he said."
The iconoclastic Erdos would fly across the world with 2 small suitcases and maybe $20 in his pocket to visit his many mathematician friends who would take him into their homes to care for him and do math with him. ("'I have no home,' he declared. 'The world is my home.'") He would play games with their children, or, as he called them, epsilons, because an epsilon is a very small number in math. Often waking at 4 a.m., saying, "My brain is open," he wanted to spend 19 hours a day, every day, doing math, though he couldn't cook or drive and never married. Math teachers will revel in this stimulating celebration of the world of numbers. Germ for The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
One fascinating double page shows miniportraits of some of the famous mathematicians across the world and how they are connected by their "Erdos numbers." A mathematician who did math with Erdos is known as an Erdos 1; an Erdos 2 would be someone who worked with someone who worked with Erdos, and so on. It's the original "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," mathstyle.
Extensive author and illustrator notes go into far more detail about Erdos' life and his theorems, proofs, equations, problems, and puzzles. For more information and links, go to Heiligman's excellent website, www.deborahheiligman.com.
Older children more familiar with multiplication and division can work on their own Sieve of Eratosthenes. Find a template here: www.worksheetworks.com/math/numbers/sieveoferatosthenes.html. To find out more about Eratosthenes, share the picture book biography, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky.
There are very few picture books or fiction books about folks who love math; clearly, this is a poorly represented constituency in children's books. A memorable one is the wild and crazy picture book, Math Curse by the great Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, in which a girl can't stop creating number problems from her life after her teacher remarks that you can think of almost anything as a math problem. A terrific chapter book for grades 24 is Annika Riz, Math Whiz by Claudia Mills about a thirdgrade girl whose favorite time of the day is math class. Unfortunately, that's the least favorite time for her two best friends. How Annika uses math to solve her problems makes for an entertaining and breezy readalone and readaloud that math loving kids (and even nonmathloving kids) will appreciate. Another, for grades 46, is the moving Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin, about fifth grader, Rose Howard. Diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, she is obsessed with homonyms, rules, and prime numbers, and is teased and called names at school.
Other Picture Book Biographies About Iconoclastic Math and ScienceMinded Geniuses Adler, David A. A Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison. Holiday House, 1996. Brown, Don. Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. __. A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood & Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison. Houghton Mifflin, 2010. D'Agnese, Joseph. Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci. Henry Holt, 2010. Delano, Marfé Ferguson. Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein. National Geographic, 2005. Krull, Kathleen. The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth. Knopf, 2009. Lasky, Kathryn. The Librarian Who Measured the Earth. Little, Brown, 1994. Martin, Jacqueline Briggs. Snowflake Bentley. Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Fiction Books About MathLoving Kids Leedy, Loreen. Measuring Penny. HarperCollins, 2007. Martin, Ann M. Rain Reign. Feiwel and Friends, 2014. Mills, Claudia. Annika Riz, Math Whiz. Farrar/Margaret Ferguson, 2014. Scieszka, Jon, and Lane Smith. Math Curse. Viking, 1995.
Judy Freeman (www.JudyReadsBooks.com) is a wellknown consultant, writer, and speaker on children's literature and storytelling. A visiting lecturer at the School of Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute in New York City, she is the author of Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3 (Libraries Unlimited, 2006), Once Upon a Time!: Using Storytelling, Creative Drama, and Reader's Theater with Children in Grades K6 (Libraries Unlimited, 2007; winner of the 2009 Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award), plus the new The Handbook for Storytellers and The Handbook for Storytime Programs (both American Library Association, 2015). Judy served as a member of the 2000 Newbery Committee, the 2008 Sibert Committee, and the 2014 Caldecott Committee.
This material is copyrighted. Text may not be copied without the express written permission of the publisher except for the imprint of the video screen content or via the output options of the EBSCOhost software. Text is intended solely for the use of the individual user.
© 2015 EBSCO Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.