By Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

Did you ever wake up to one of those days where everything is a problem? You have 10 things to do, but only 30 minutes till the bus leaves. Is there enough time? You have 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants -- can you make 1 good outfit? Don't worry -- it's just the Math Curse striking! An amusing book about dealing with numbers in everyday life.

By Gregory Tang

In this book you soon will see how very clever you can be. Learn little tricks to help you add. Surprise your teachers, mom, and dad! The challenge is to find each sum without counting one by one. Why not count? It’s much too slow. Adding is the way to go! But don’t just add what you first see. A better way there’s sure to be. Make clever groups before you start, then add them in a way that’s smart. So try these out! They’re really fun – you’ll love math before you’re done!

By Marilyn Burns

The author of The I Hate Mathematics Book celebrates geometric shapes in this informative but visually cluttered addition to the Marilyn Burns Brainy Day series. Her main character, a triangle with gleaming black eyes and a perky grin, leads a full life-it can take the shape of a slice of pie or rest in an elbow's angle "when people put their hands on hips." Yet the triangle aspires to greater complexity, so it asks a "shapeshifter" to turn it into a quadrilateral then into a pentagon and so forth. The story successfully introduces basic polygons, and her afterword to adults suggests ways of teaching children some of the finer points about geometry.

By Rolf Myller

The King wants to give the Queen something special for her birthday. The Queen has everything, everything except a bed. The trouble is that no one in the Kingdom knows the answer to a very important question: How Big is a Bed? because beds at the time had not yet been invented. The Queen's birthday is only a few days away. How can they figure out what size the bed should be?

By Elinor J. Pinczes

rhyming text describes the progress of one hundred ants marching toward a picnic. To travel faster, one ant suggests dividing into two lines of fifty, then four lines of twenty-five, and finally ten lines of ten. Their frantic reorganization takes so long that the picnic is gone by the time they arrive. Rhymed verse propels a spirited math lesson. "The unexpected pairing of sophisticated art and lighthearted text lends this book particular distinction."

By Amy Axelrod

The Pigs are very hungry, and there’s no food in the house. Mr. Pig suggests eating out – but oh, no! The Pigs are out of money! So the family goes on a money hunt. In beds, under the carpet, even in the washing machine the coins and bills add up, and soon it’s off to the Enchanted Enchilada. How much money did the pigs find? What can they afford to order from the menu? Join the fun and pig out on math and money concepts with the Pigs!

By Judith Viorst

Last Sunday, Alexander's grandparents gave him a dollar -- and he was rich. There were so many things that he could do with all of that money! He could buy as much gum as he wanted, or even a walkie-talkie, if he saved enough. But somehow the money began to disappear...

By Paul Giganti and Illustrated by Donald Crwes

If each orange has 8 slices and each slice has 2 seeds, how many seeds are there in all? You’ll have fun whether you multiply, add, or count your way through the math puzzles hiding in the world all around you.

By Eve Merriam

Where is 11? Is it in the magician’s hat? Maybe it’s in the mailbox or hiding in the jack-o-lantern? Don’t forget to look in the barnyard where the hen awaits the arrival of her new little chicks. Could that be where 11 went? Young readers go on a counting adventure as they demonstrate twelve witty and imaginative ways to get to eleven.

By David M. Schwartz

In attempt to help children conceptualize the immensity of numbers is aided immeasurably by the artist's jovial, detailed, whimsical illustrations. Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician demonstrates the meaning of a million by showing his four young friendsthat it would take twenty-three days to even count to a million and that a goldfish bowl large enough to hold a million goldfish could hold a whale. Seven pages are printed with tiny white stars on a grid pattern against a blue sky -- adding up to only one hundred thousand stars! And after that, a billion and a trillion are discussed, all with equally or even more outstanding examples; a trillion children standing on each other's shoulders would almost reach to the rings of Saturn. The author concludes with several pages of the mathematical calculations which support his examples, very clearly and humorously explained. An unusual idea, smoothly and amusingly presented.

By Cynthia Falwell

Readers go from one to 10 twice in this cozy counting book, as an African American brood prepares a bountiful dinner for the extended family. Mother and the five kids start at the supermarket ("one cart . . . two pumpkins . . . three children"), unload groceries at home (with the father's help), do the cooking and then "ten hungry folks" sit down to dinner.

By Peggy Rathman

Another countdown begins in 10 Minutes Till Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann, as an entire community of hamsters joins a boy and his own pet hamster in getting ready for bed. Loads of activity on each spread finally causes the boy to scream, "BED TIME!" and all go peacefully off to sleep.

By Gregory Tang

Greg Tang's proven methods--giving kids tools rather than rules and more memorization--pay off once again, as he uses rhymes and commonsense tricks to walk through the multiplication tables from zero to 10. For example, if you know how to multiply by two, then fours and eights should be a cinch. Some of the rhymes are even as clever as Tang's tips: Over a panda pool game, he advises, "Nine is faster to compute if at first you overshoot. Here's a very clever tack, do 10 times and then subtract! What is 9 x 9? It's ten 9's minus 9.... What is 9 x 7? It's ten 7's minus 7." Tang's text makes for a fun read-along, and illustrator Harry Briggs keeps things interesting with his computer-generated, animal-inspired spreads, with dancing chickens, ice-cream-flinging monkeys, and a fortunetelling cat. Kids won't feel left out of the action either: each section ends with a couple of challenges, and a key in the back spells out all the answers.

By Ann Whitehead Nagda

T.J., a Siberian tiger cub born at the Denver Zoo, is orphaned when he is only a few weeks old. The veterinary staff raises him, feeding him by hand until he is able to eat on his own and be returned to the tiger exhibit. The story is accompanied by graphs on facing pages that chart T.J.'s growth, successfully showing math in "real world" terms. The first charts show how few Siberian tigers remain in the wild and in captivity, helping to establish the importance of saving this one. The doctors need to know how much the young animal eats and how much weight he gains in order to make sure he is healthy. Easy-to-understand picture, pie or circle, bar, or line graphs, all with explanations, appear on the left; facing pages of text and clear full-color photographs are on the right. The photos and story portray T.J. as cuddly and friendly, playing hide-and-seek with his human keepers and pouncing on them for fun. However, since few children will have the opportunity to interact with a tiger cub, the safety concern is minimal. Overall, an innovative approach to teaching math.

By Demi

Exotic, beautiful, and instructive, this "mathematical folktale" by author-illustrator Demi emerged from her love of India. The narrative and the evocative illustrations combine to create a real sense of the culture and atmosphere of this romantic land. It's the story of Rani, a clever girl who outsmarts a very selfish raja and saves her village. When offered a reward for a good deed, she asks only for one grain of rice, doubled each day for 30 days. Remember your math? That's lots of rice: enough to feed a village for a good long time--and to teach a greedy raja a lesson.