Chocolate ice cream + Peanut butter = Rapture

This is my favorite ‘solution’ to a really hot day (or even a mildly warm one). Maybe not calorie-wise but…

This Plus That: life’s little equations by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (823 R724T PIC BK) just begs the reader to start making up their own equations for life..

This isn’t really a story as such but captures the mostly small moments in life using mathematical equations. Two little girls start the book with “1+ 1 = us.” A little further along we learn that “laughter + keeping secrets + sharing = best friend.”

There are slices of life from school, from home, with friends and family, in different seasons and even bigger, more philosophical moments like,
                   color = art
       soul + words = literature
                   sound = music
                  movement = dance
or
“good days + bad days = real life.”

The illustrations are very clean looking with not a lot of background but lots of white space. Most pages focus directly on the children with a few props.

This book will be a great classroom book, useful for both math and language arts. It’s very playful and will inspire students to add, multiple, divide, and subtract their own ‘equational’ moments.

Suggested for grades K-3.

Mathematickles! by Betsy Franco (811 FrM 2003 PIC BK) is similiar, combining mathematical symbols with word play to create gem-like poems about seasonal activities.