Kid Adventure and a little Math Too

PLEASE BRING BALLOONS                  By; Lindsay Ward                    4.5 Stars

In this cute story a little girl finds a note from a carousel polar bear to bring balloons, which leads to a magical adventure. The storyline becomes even cuter when you find out the author’s parents actually met while painting carousel animals. However, the illustrations far outshine the words. In fact, I wonder if the story would have been even better if it was just illustrations.

I wish I knew the back story to the illustrations. There are numbers, dates, music notes, maps, and incredible colors. I ended up putting more books by the author on hold at the library so I could see how they compare. Check Please Bring Balloons out and see the magic for yourself.

 

BEDTIME MATH 2: This Time It’s Personal                            5 Stars

By: Laura Overdeck    Illustrated By: Jim Paillot

               

Math? At Bedtime?  Whose brains work that well as they are trying to go to sleep? I had to look at the book to see what it was all about. Let’s just say I was impressed.

There are almost 40 different sections to this book. Each section has its own topic, which contains interesting information and sometimes even facts. Then interesting math problems are connected to that topic. Each section has 4 different math problems all broken down into ranges for your children. There are: Wee Ones, Little Kids, Big Kids, and Bonus.

As an example the “Foot in Your Math-or on Your Arm” topic explains how your body parts relate to each other (your foot is the same length as your wrist to elbow). Then the math problems are related to less than/greater than, subtraction, addition, and multiplication. The answers are at the bottom of each page.

The layout is brilliant and the illustrations are unique to each page topic. Best of all, the back has a math equation chart that will help you figure out how to set up the problems if you get stumped. Now there is no reason for summer to affect your kid’s brains. Check out the website here.

“Mom, I’m Bored”

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH              By: Norton Juster                    4.5 Stars

The Phantom Tollbooth is a book geared toward kids. I never read it as a child, but I would imagine you would learn different things from it at different times in your life, even as an adult. Some of you may grumble and write off the book, who wants to learn lessons? Don’t write off The Phantom Tollbooth yet, fun may still be found for all ages. It is written for kids who find very little enjoyment out of life, as portrayed by the main character, Milo.

Milo has no desire to find happiness in life and basically just lives his life by following the necessary motions. That is until a phantom tollbooth appears in his bedroom. Soon Milo finds himself transported into a world without rhyme or reason. Milo learns the importance of words, numbers, sound, and vision in an effort to restore the kingdom to its original glory.

This book is full of profound quotes and sound advice. It points out early the value of commodities such as time, and perception. In addition to the many lessons I learned, an important one happened when the miners in Digitopolis threw away diamonds, emeralds, rubies and a number of stones we consider to be precious. In the larger scheme of things there are items of even higher importance. Another lesson was that things are only impossible if you believe them to be so.

With all the knowledge contained within this short book, I would expect it to finish by saying something to the effect of “you have learned well tiny grasshopper”. Even without the phrase, Norton Juster’s work is done.