Miguel Tanco

This book is about a young bi-racial little girl who loves math, that everything she sees around her is math to her! She sees math at the playground, at art museums and even at the dinner table, but some people find it odd how she sees that and why she is so passionate about math. She tries different things at her school such as art or music but nothing excites her like math does. This is a great book to read-aloud to students. It has many beautiful pictures included as well as math concepts written in it; basic polygons with examples. It shows students that they can be passionate in anything because we are all different and view the world differently. I would take parts of the book to introduce a concept such as basic polygons or fractals. It shows pictures and examples of them in the book which is what I love about it.… (mais)

I rated this book at 4 stars -- the average of the 5 stars I would give it for the illustrations and the 3 stars for the story. The illustrations are charming and consistent, with a color palette similar to those of the Olivia books -- lots of bright splashes of red, yellow, and orange on an otherwise muted background. I also love that the family depicted is mixed race, with no mention of that in the story because it has no bearing on it.

The story itself is about a little girl takes note of all the passions the people around her have, including her father, mother, brother, and schoolmates. She then explains her love of math and gives examples of seeing it in the world all around her. I should love this story, because I like math and science and I want more girls to learn to love those things at an early age. But the way it's told somehow feels a little sterile to me, such that it doesn't rise up to the level of the illustrations. Overall, though, I'm glad that this book exists and I'm glad to have read it.… (mais)