Used Bookstores and the Poetry of Math

I dragged my son to cantor practice with me Friday afternoon. He was not pleased (he hates it when I sing), but well-behaved nonetheless. As his reward (oh heck, my reward too), we went to a lovely little consignment shop that has a huge room full of used books. Upon arrival we both promptly took seats on the floor and began rummaging through stacks of hardcover picture books. William found some I Spy (four of them for $5 each!) and Curious George books, as well as Eloise, his new favorite. I was delighted to find an enormous stack of poetry books. I'm always amazed that people can part with books in this fashion, as I can't stand to give a single one away. I did find several treasures, including Hummingbird Nest: A Journal of Poems and The Great Frog Race: And Other Poems by Kristine O'Connell George, mammalabilia by Douglas Florian, and a copy of Please Bury Me in the Library by J. Patrick Lewis.

However, my two favorite purchases were mathematical poetry books. These are:

• Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins - This collection of poems, by a variety of authors, looks at math in interesting ways, and allows students to see how math is useful in everyday life.

• Arithme-Tickle: An Even Number of Odd-Riddle Rhymes by J. Patrick Lewis - These 18 rhyming riddles present word puzzles to be solved. Answers are written upside-down below each entry.

These books will make a nice addition to my growing collection of math poetry books which includes:

• Math Talk: Mathematical Ideas in Poems for Two Voices by Theoni Pappas - Theoni Pappas has written a wide range of mathematical books, most of the them for secondary classrooms, but the dialogues in this book are appropriate for elementary kids.

• Mathematickles! by Betsy Franco - This book offers brief poems using forms suggested by mathematical processes, all within a seasonal framework changing from fall to winter to spring to summer. As it says on the cover, "words + math + seasons = Mathematickles!"

• Riddle-Iculous Math by Joan Holub - This very funny book contains verbal puns, riddles and rhymes based on math.

• Ten Times Better by Richard Michelson - This quirky book of poetry uses the idea of multiplying by 10 to present facts about various common and unusual animals.

• Mr. R's Math Poems by Mr. R - Grouped by grade level, this book has a range of funny poems written by a teacher just for elementary school kids. You can read some examples at Mr. R's web site.

• Einstein, the Girl Who Hated Maths by John Agard - This is a wonderful book of poems about the world of numbers. (This is from the UK, hence the word maths.)

• Number Parade: Number Poems From 0-100 - This collection of numerical poems comes from a variety of authors including John Agard, Jackie Kay, Grace Nichols, Nick Toczek and Mike Rosen.

• Greg Tang has written a series of books that use rhyme and riddles to get kids thinking about creative problem-solving. Titles include:


• The Grapes of Math
• Math Potatoes: Mind Stretching Brain Food
  
• Math for All Seasons
• The Best of Times
• Math Appeal: Mind Stretching Math Riddles
  
• Math-terpieces
• Math Fables

Here is an example from Math-terpieces, a book that uses famous works of art to get kids thinking mathematically.

Peachy Keen
For Paul Cezanne, still lifes would do,
A cloth, a vase and peaches, too.
His planes of color, pure and bright,
So smartly capture form and light.
Can you make 10 with bowls of fruit?
Find all 5 ways if you're astute!

I wouldn't think of teaching basic math concepts without copies of Where The Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. Some of my favorite math-related poems are:

• Band-Aids
• Hungry Mungry
  
• One Inch Tall
• Smart
• Eight Balloons
• Shapes
  

I also have a couple of teacher resource books on using poetry to teach math. These titles are well worth the investment.

• Circle-Time Poetry: Math by Jodi Simpson (Read the Table of Contents)
  
• Counting Caterpillars and Other Math Poems (Grades K-2) by Besty Franco
• Poems to Count On: 32 Terrific Poems and Activities to Help Teach Math Concepts by Sandra Liatsos
• 101 Thematic Poems for Emergent Readers by Mary Sullivan (See the Table of Contents for number poems)
• The Big Book of Classroom Poems by Kathleen Hollenbeck (See the Table of Contents for math poems)
  

Finally, check out Scholastic's Max's Math Adventures for a whole series of activities in math that are based on math poems. (I know, it's not a book, but many of the poems appear in the Liatsos book.)

So, crack open a few of these books and let yourself learn to like math, even just a little. Trust me, math can be fun!