Thursday, August 15, 2013

Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Dessert by Cindy Neuschwander –ESSENTIAL

Neuschwander, Cindy and Illustrated by Geehan, Wayne Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Dessert  32 pgs. Charlesbridge Publishing, 2013. $13.33.  Content: Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

A dessert is needed for the Harvest Faire, and the castle cook is sick! So two town bakers compete for the honor, each creating 4 desserts for the townspeople to sample and vote on. But keeping track of the votes proves to be a challenge. Bake Finally Pia uses candies around a pie dough and Bart makes stacks of his cookie tins. What will they do when they discover they are tied?

This is a fantastic book in this fun math series!! I felt a lightbulb go off in my head when the ending of the book presented a pie chart which mirrored the pie crust and a bar chart which mirrored the cookie tins –even though I already knew the concepts! This is an incredibly memorable way for students to understand and never forget these math concepts. Any number of activities could go along with this! Plus the dessert element can never go amiss!

EL – ESSENTIAL Reviewer: Stephanie Elementary School Librarian & Author.

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