Picture Books with Mathematical Themes

See also Eight uses of literature in math

Number value

Order, classification

• Strongest, Fastest. Jenkins, Steve Ticknor & Fields Books for Young Readers New York 1995 0 - 395 - 86136 - 5 Animal records of size, speed… 8 P,NF
• Blue Sea. Kalan, Robert Il. Donald Crews Trumpet Club New York 1979 0 - 440 - 84979 - 9 Big, bigger, biggest, little, littler, littlest 5 F
• Color Farm. Ehlert, Lois Trumpet Club New York 1990 0 - 440 - 84709 - 5 Shape, color, animals 5 C
• Geraldine’s Blanket. Keller, Holly Greenwillow Books New York 1984 0 - 688 - 07810 - 9 Getting smaller, whole to part 5 F
• Opposites. Kightley, Rosalinda Trumpet New York 1986 0 - 590 - 06218 - 2 Opposites 5 P
• The Best Bug Paraade. Murphy, stuart J. Illus. Holly Keller Scholastic New York 1997 0 - 590 - 06263 - 8 Big, bigger, biggest; Small…; long… short…; good, better, best 6 C
• The Story of Z. Modesitt, Jeanne Illus. Lonni Sue Johnson Saxonville, Mass.:Picture Book Studios 1990. Order, last, Z goes on strike and bedlam follows till Z is coaxed back.
• The Wuggie Norple Story. Pinkwater, Daniel M. Illus. Tomie de Paola Trumpet Club New York 1980 0 - 440 - 84879 - 2 Relative size, bigger, smaller, same 5 P
• Which Witch is Which? Hutchins, Pat Greenwillow Books New York 1989 Can you tell which twin is which? 7 F

Counting

• From One to One Hundred. Sloat, Teri Puffin Books New York 1991 0 - 14 - 055643 - 5 Counting book from 1,2,3 - 10,20,30 - 100 6 F
• Counting on Frank. Clement, Rod Gareth Stevens Children’s Books Milwaukee, WI 1991.
• One Hundred Hungry Ants. Princzes, Elinor J Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston 1993 How fast to picnic in lines of 1, 2, …10 7 F
• Ten Black Dots. Crews, Donald Scholastic New York 1986 0 - 590 - 46479 - 5 Number value to 10 1 - 1 correspondence, symbols 5 C
• Ten For Dinner. Bogart, Jo Ellen Scholastic Books New York 1989
• The 100th Day of School. Medearis, Angela Shelf Il. Joan Holub Scholastic New York 1996 0 - 590 - 25944 - X Number value 100 6 C
• One, Two, One Pair. McMillan, Bruce Scholastic New York 1991 0 - 590 - 43798 - 2 Number value 1, 2, pair 5 P
• There's a Hole in My Pocket Gibson, Akimi Illus. Jeni Bassett Scholastic New York 1994 0 - 590 - 27598 - 4 Number value, zero 6 C
• Thirteen Days of Halloween. Greene, Carol Children’s Press Chicago 1983 Three Pigs,
• Twelve Ways to Get to Eleven. Merriam, Eve Illus. By Bernie Karlin Simon & Schuster New York 1993
• Two Tiny Mice Baker, Alan Scholastic New York 1990 0 - 590 - 46404 - 3 Visualization, number value 2 and relative size 5 P
• How Many Snails. Giganti 1988
• More than One. Hoban 1981
• The 329th Friend. Sharmat 1979. Emery Raccoon has a party, invites 328 forest guests, but Emery is disappointed with all the commotion, leaves, and learns he is a friend of himself. Then some guests notice him, thank him, and invite him to visit. Number value 329. What is an optimum number of party guests?
• How to Count like a Martian. St. John 1975. Counting systems include: ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Mayans, Greeks, and Hindus, describes the operation of an abacus and a computer, and an imaginary Martian system. Middle level
• The King’s Commissioners. Friedman 1994. counting and place value.
• Cookies. Jaspersohn 1993
• 8,000 Stones Wolkstein 1972

Counting money & change

• 26 Letters and 99 Cents. Tana Hoban, Scholastic: New York. 1987. Primary. 0-590-41831 9 Combinations of coins to .99
• A Quarter From the Tooth Fairy. Holtzman, Caren Illus. By Betsy Day Scholastic New York 1995 0 - 590 - 36598 - 9 Quarter and equivalent coins 6 F
• Benny’s Pennies. Brisson, Pat Bantam Doubleday New York 1993 0 - 440 - 41016 - 9 Shops buys five objects for family 5 F Biggest, equality,
• Pigs Will Be Pigs. Axelrod, Amy Four Winds Press New York 1994 0 - 689 - 81219 - 1 Money hunt, how much did they find and what did they have left after dinner? 7 F

Fractions

• Each Orange Had 8 Slices. Giganti, Paul Jr. Il. Donald Crews Trumpet Club New York 1992 0 - 440 - 84957 - 8 Number value, skip counting, multiples, addition, problem solving 7 + P
• Eating Fractions. McMillan, Bruce Scholastic New York 1991 0 - 590 - 43771 - 2 Whole, halves, thirds, & fourths 6 C
• Fraction Action. by Leedy, Loreen Trumpet Club New York 1994 0 - 440 - 83436 - 8 fractional parts as equal shares, and parts of a whole 7 C

Really large numbers

• A Million Fish… More or Less. McKissack, Patricia C. Il. Dena Schutzer Trumpet New York 1992 0 - 440 - 83063 - X Tall tale, number value, estimation 7 F
• G is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book. Schwartz, David Illus Marissa Moss Scholastic Inc. New York 1998 0 - 439 - 10489 - 0 Informational book 10 NF
• How Much is a Million. Schwartz, Davie M. Il. Steven Kellogg Scholastic New York 1985 0 - 590 - 43614 - 7 Number value 1,000,000 6 P
• If You Made a Million. Schwartz, David M. Illus. Steven Kellogg Scholastic New York 1989 0 - 590 - 43608 - 2 Number value, money, 1,000,000 8 P

Operations

Groups

• Shoes, Shoes, Shoes. Morris, Ann Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books New York 1995 28 Illustrations shoes from around world 6 P
• A Dozen Dozens. Harriet Ziefert Il. Chris Demarest Viking New York 1998 0 - 14 - 038819 - 2 Number value, dozen, _ dozen 5 C
• What Comes in 2's, 3's, & 4's? Aker, Suzanne Illus. Bernie Karlin Scholastic New York 1990 0 - 590 - 47838 - 9 Number value 2, 3, 4 PT F
• Anno’s Magic Seeds. Anno, Mitsumasa Philomel Books New York 1995 0 - 399 - 22538 - 2 Double, + , - 7 P
• A Remainder of One. Pinczes, Elinor J. Il. Bonnie Mackain Houghton Mifflin Company Boston 1995 0 - 395 - 69455 - 8 Division, matrix multiplication 7 P
• Moira's Birthday. Munsch, Robert Illus. Michael Martchenko Annick Press LTD Toronto, Canada 1987 0 - 920303 - 83 - 8 Birthday party for 200 6 F
• Stay in Line. Slater, Teddy Illus. Gioia Fiammenghi Scholastic New York 1996 0 - 590 - 22713 - 0 Field trip 12 students in different groups, patterns 6 F
• Gator Pie. Mathews 1979. Two gators find a pie and share as others come along. Sharing... fractions
• Anna’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar Anno & Anno 1983

Measurement

• How Big Is A Foot?. Myller, Rolf Illus. Rolf Mylier Dell Publishing New York 1990 Standard unit of measurement 6 F
• Inch by Inch. Lionni, Leo Scholastic New York 1960 0 - 590 - 47991 - 1 Measurement, inch 6 C
• Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing there is?. Wells, Robert E. Scholastic New York 1993 0 - 590 - 48471 - 0 Size of the Universe, really big numbers 9 P
• The Popcorn Book. De Paola, Tomie Holiday House New York 1978 0 - 590 - 40264 - 1 History of popcorn, measurement volume, 7 F
• The Principal’s New Clothes. Calmenson, Stephanie Scholastic New York 1989 Measurement 5 F
• Jim and the Beanstalk Briggs 1970. Measurement, problem solving.
• How big? How fast? How Hungry?. Waverly 1990
• In One Day Parker 1984. Time

Geometry

• Jumping the Broom. Wright, Courtni C. Holiday House New York 1994 0 - 8234 - 1042 - 0 Quilt patterns 8 F
• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. Hopkinson, Deborah Illus. By James Ransome Alfred A. Knopf New York 1993 0 - 679 - 87472 - 0 Spatial relationships, number value, patterns 8 HF
• The Greedy Triangle. Burns, Marilyn Illus. By Gordon Silveria Scholastic New York 1994.
• The Patchwork Quilt. Flournoy, Valerie Scholastic or Dial New York 1985 0 - 590 - 89753 - 5 patterns, History of families, black experience 6 F

Algebra

• Anno's Math Games II. Anno, Mitsumasa Philomel Books New York 1989 0 - 399 - 21615 - 4 Function, measurement, patterns 10 P
• The King’s Chessboard. Birch, David Illus. By Devis Grebu Dial Books for Young Readers New York 1988 0 - 14 - 054880 - 7 Proud King gift of rice double every day for each square on checker board 10 F
• One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes. Maccarone, Grace Scholastic New York 1997 Retelling of 3 pigs with tangrams 8 F
• The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures. MalbaTahan 1993. A young man goes on a fantastical journey and solves problems with arithmetic and algebra. Readers will experiment with mathematical ideas.
• Pattern. Pluckrose 1988 from the Math Counts series

 

 

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes