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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Each of the board books in this quartet feature the same three young children who demonstrate simple math concepts in real-life scenarios through the four seasons. In the spring, Mei plants a sunflower seed and then uses her body (toe, knees, waist, shoulders) to measure the growth of the sunflower in Up to My Knees! In Circle! Sphere!, Manny joins Olivia and Mei in the summer to introduce elementary geometric shapes as they blow bubbles in the backyard. What Will Fit? has Olivia exploring spatial reasoning by considering how different fruits and vegetables do (or don't) fill her basket at an autumn farmers' market. And when Mei and Olivia come inside on a cold winter day in The Last Marshmallow, they warm up with hot cocoa and figure out how to divide three marshmallows into equal shares. Olivia is Black, Mei is Asian and brown-skinned Manny is likely Latino; all are engaged, curious children exploring their everyday world through math. Each book concludes with a double-page spread for adults that includes more about the concept introduced in each volume and a practical "Try This!" section with tips on ways to extend the math exploration with children. (Ages 2-4)

CCBC Choices 2021 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2021. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

Starred review from November 1, 2020
[star] The Last Marshmallow [Storytelling Math] by Grace Lin; illus. by the author Preschool Charlesbridge 16 pp. g 10/20 978-1-62354-126-2 $6.99 [star] Up to My Knees! [Storytelling Math] by Grace Lin; illus. by the author Preschool Charlesbridge 16 pp. g 10/20 978-1-62354-123-1 $6.99 [star] What Will Fit? [Storytelling Math] by Grace Lin; illus. by the author Preschool Charlesbridge 16 pp. g 10/20 978-1-62354-125-5 $6.99 In board book form, Lin accomplishes that most difficult of tasks: creating engaging, accessible, age-level-appropriate, not-too-fussily illustrated stories that also teach something. In this case it's math. Each entry homes in on a specific mathematical concept, while together providing a tour through the seasons -- and a slice-of-life portrait of three friends, Olivia, Mei, and Manny. In the springtime-set Knees, Mei observes measurement and comparison as she cultivates a sunflower. Circle! Sphere! proves the mind-stretching fact that the children's three different-shaped bubble wands produce the same-shaped bubble. Fit's setting is a fall farmers' market and illustrates Olivia's spatial sense (and taste in produce). Wintry Marshmallow touches on division, both mathematical (how to split three marshmallows between two girls...) and behavioral (...without ruining the friendship). The illustrations are signature Lin -- think The Ugly Vegetables (rev. 9/99) and the Ling and Ting books -- with bold, saturated hues; thick black outlines; judicious use of frames; eye-pleasingly tidy details; and nothing extraneous. Brief "Exploring the Math" notes and "Try This!" suggestions, addressed to adults and written by an early math expert, are appended. All together, these diminutive math storybooks add up to a whole lot of fun. Elissa Gershowitz

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Horn Book

July 1, 2020
In board book form, Lin accomplishes that most difficult of tasks: creating engaging, accessible, age-level-appropriate, not-too-fussily illustrated stories that also teach something. In this case it's math. Each entry homes in on a specific mathematical concept, while together providing a tour through the seasons -- and a slice-of-life portrait of three friends, Olivia, Mei, and Manny. In the springtime-set Knees, Mei observes measurement and comparison as she cultivates a sunflower. Circle! Sphere! proves the mind-stretching fact that the children's three different-shaped bubble wands produce the same-shaped bubble. Fit's setting is a fall farmers' market and illustrates Olivia's spatial sense (and taste in produce). Wintry Marshmallow touches on division, both mathematical (how to split three marshmallows between two girls...) and behavioral (...without ruining the friendship). The illustrations are signature Lin -- think The Ugly Vegetables (rev. 9/99) and the Ling and Ting books -- with bold, saturated hues; thick black outlines; judicious use of frames; eye-pleasingly tidy details; and nothing extraneous. Brief "Exploring the Math" notes and "Try This!" suggestions, addressed to adults and written by an early math expert, are appended. All together, these diminutive math storybooks add up to a whole lot of fun.

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)