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So as promised, I am starting a thread on books (especially picture books, but chapter books are welcome as well) that teach math concepts or that include math concepts as part of the story. I will add a few of my favorites tonight, but will add to this thread in the upcoming weeks as I have time. (Now that I'm back to work, time is harder to find. But I'll pop in when I can...) Of course, I'd love others to share titles as well.

Here are a few of my favorites:
Grapes Of Math as well as the many other books by Greg Tang help kids to estimate, understand numbers and group/count by bigger numbers than one.

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy features Penny (a dog) and her owner. Same characters as Mapping Penny that we just read in the Picture Book Club. In this book, she is supposed to measure Penny using standard, nonstandard and metric units. It is a great introduction to measurement and the many ways you can measure something. Loreen Leedy has written several other math books as well.

Stuart Murphy is the author of a whole series of math books that are leveled into 3 or 4 levels based on the difficulty of the math. There are books on many math topics, including rounding (Coyotes All Around is the title, I believe), graphing (Lemonade For Sale), probability Betcha!, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, measuring, ordinal numbers, time, and many more.

Apple Fractions by Jerry Palotta is a nice introduction to fractions. It goes well with Hershey's Fractionsand Pizza Fractions, both also by Palotta. It's fun for kids to see that fractions are part of real life and to relate fractions to food. We then cut up apples (real or magnetic apples from Lakeshore), cut up Hershey's bars, and use paper to make pizza fractions.Eating Fractions is also good along that lines.Whole-Y Cow: Fractions Are Fun is a very fun read about fractions and Piece = Part = Portion: Fractions = Decimals = Percents is a more advanced book about the relationship between fractions, decimals, etc.

The Doorbell Rang isn't an obvious math title, but the mom has baked cookies and as more and more friends come, they have to find fair ways to share (divide) the cookies. great intro to division.

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table: A Math Adventure is appropriate for about 5th and 6th grade and begins to teach kids about circumference. This is the first in a series about Sir Cumference.

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns is probably my favorite book about geometry. I would have had a much easier time remembering shapes as a kid if they'd been told to me in a story like this!

Then I just want to put a couple of plugs for a couple of adult books that are very helpful if you're an adult trying to help kids learn math.

Marilyn Burns is a math whiz and amazing educator. She has written books for kids as well as books for adults about how to teach math. She is amazing!

This summer I read two books that might also be of interest. The first was called Math Power: How to Help Your Child Love Math, Even if You Don't, Revised Edition. I didn't read the revised edition...mine was from 1998, I believe. Anyway, she explains what she sees as some problems with math education in the US (some of her criticisms I agree with, but not all...but also it was written more than a decade ago)...she rails against the way we do standardized testing...and she also provides several chapters that give concrete ideas that parents can use at home to make math fun. It's not necessarily an easy or quick read, but there's a lot of good in it.

Also, Games for Math is absolutely chock full of games that teach preschool to grade 3 skills and concepts. I've tried quite a few with my own kids and will try others with my 2nd graders this year. And most of them require materials you already have or could easily purchase (a deck of cards, a couple of dice, calculator, pencil/paper).

Hope it's okay to throw in a couple of adult titles but I think they are appropriate with this thread and great resources for those who teach or have children.

One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale

The Rajah's Rice: A Mathematical Folktale from India

Don't forget the "Anno" math series

Yeah, thanks for adding titles, Lisa and Tricia!
Anno's Journey
Anno's Magic Seeds I think this one is kind of similar to One Grain of Rice in that it shows how quickly doubling a number adds up. If I remember correctly.
Annos Mysterious Multiplying Jar

Another series that I've used in the classroom is the series by Amy Axelrod: Pigs Go to Market: Halloween Fun with Math and Shopping
Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money
Pigs On A Blanket
Pigs in the Pantry: Fun with Math and Cooking
Pigs at Odds : Fun with Math and Games.
Pigs at Odds seems especially fun in the classroom...about probability. Pigs in the Pantry would be a fun one to read at home.

Logic, geometry, topology... Let's not forget that bright children might be intrigued by puzzles & fables, too. For example Norton Juster'sThe Phantom Tollbooth or The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics.

Or the classic allegory of society told in mathematic form, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. When I was a child I enjoyed the math of this but was able to overlook the story.

This is more for older children, and young adults, but I've been meaning to read The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (originally in German as Der Zahlenteufel).

Binary Numbers (Young Math Books) by Clyde Watson

String, Straightedge, and Shadow by Julia Diggs

Both are fantastic!

Gundula, have you noticed the book page - Number Devil comes with some very different covers in various editions, which I find fascinating. My library has it so I'll try to be careful to review the exact edition I read.

Thanks everyone!

Both my boys love Maths (like their parents) and are completely into puzzles, maths challenges, sudoku, extension maths etc.

These suggestions are just brilliant - Thanks again!

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Gundula, have you noticed the book page - Number Devil comes with some very different covers in various editions, which I find fascinating. My library has it so I'll try to be careful to review th..."

I should check if my library has the book. I actually want to (or feel that I should) read it in German, but I cannot find my copy of the book (it got lost when I moved a few years ago). Also, ha, ha, I am a bit reluctant to read the book, because I wonder that with my lousy mass skills, I will not be able to understand it all that well :-)

I second the Circumference books. Great for boys!

You Can Count on Monsters by Richard Evan Schwartz is a rather new one...it's a "hybrid math/art book" that goes through the factor trees for number 1 to 100.

Jenny,
I'm so happy you've started this thread. Thank you so much! :-)

I second the recommendation of One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale.

Also, I thought Math Curse was really interesting. Not being a "math person" myself, I'm not sure it was my favorite book ever, but I really appreciated it and think it would really appeal to kids who like math. (It's a picture book and very creative and quite humorous.)

Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci is an engaging picture book biography and I really appreciated the insight into one who thinks mathematically since I don't! I think children who love math will find a kindred spirit in Fibonacci and those who "don't like math" might appreciate it a little more.

The Rabbit Problem also looks like it's both about math and Fibonacci.

My daughter and I really loved all the Pigs books and also Tyrannosaurus Math.

This list on GR has a bunch of math/science,etc. kids books on it, worth checking out:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/88...

Definitely for older kids (grade 5 and up), G Is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book is an alphabet book about math vocabulary... with a lot of text. Seems like it makes a better reference than a book to sit down and read, but some great info.

The Action of Subtraction and The Mission of Addition are good introductions to addition and subtraction. Domino Addition teaches number recognition and shows how dominoes can be used for adding (and they could also be used for subtraction).
Mission: Addition andSubtraction Action by Loreen Leedy are fun stories about a class of animals that are solving problems. In fact, Leedy has written lots of books on math concepts, including, of course, Measuring Penny.


A few fun counting books: How Many Snails?: A Counting Book (Counting Books
Night-time Numbers: A Scary Counting Book
Counting Kisses: A Kiss & Read Book
Five Little Ducks is the famous rhyme which counts backwards from 5-0.
Two Ways to Count to Ten
Moja Means One
Warthogs in the Kitchen: A Sloppy Counting Book
From One to One Hundred

I'm so excited to check out some of the titles that others are adding. Many are books that I have read/used in my classroom, but there are others that I haven't even heard of! What a great resource this will be! :) Thanks everyone.

I just read The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure and it was fun. Shelved as YA in my library but, with pix and all, looks more like age 9 and up. A bit reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth but the focus is entirely on real mathematics. No words, no goofs, no social satire. Recommended for the child who reminds you of (a younger/ beginning version of) Jason in the FoxTrot: A FoxTrot Collection comics.

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "I just read The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure and it was fun. Shelved as YA in my library but, with pix and all, looks more like age 9 and up. A bit reminiscent of [book:The..."

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I should read (or finally read) mu copy of the book as well.

I should have said not "no words" but "no word-play." And actually there is a tiny bit to enable the 'story' and the 'humor.'

I don't think anyone mentioned the "Mathstart" series. What I like is that they are really cute so ds enjoyed them. There are man books on various topics. For example, basic division:Divide and Ride

I've never heard of the mathstart series, but my library has! Next time I'm in I'll go look at them, thanks!

My students have always enjoyed David Schwartz's How Much Is a Million? and If You Made a Million. Great books to help children - and adults - get their head around just how much a million is!

This book kept my husband, me, and 7-year-old daughter entertained on a car trip recently. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure book, but the choices are based on solving math problems. This particular one is a pirate story. If you get the answer wrong, you get "saved" by a parrot who explains the math and sends you back to try again. There are three other books in the series, according to the back of the book. QEB Adventure Math: The Cavern of Clues

Also I second the recommendation for Math Curse. My daughter enjoyed reading this over the summer and she liked doing the math. My favorite part was when the narrator volunteered not to have a cupcake so the class didn't have to calculate the fractions to share 24 cupcakes among 25 people.

I read The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure a few years ago; bought it for my daughter to read when we were living and homeschooling in a non-English language country for awhile. She basically refused to read it--but then she is not interested in math at all. I liked it.

Some of the books that are popular among teachers at my K-5 school are:

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland: A Math Adventure and the other books in this geometry series--I also used it with my 3rd grade son for my brief foray into homeschooling.
One Hundred Hungry Ants
Greedy Triangle
Spaghetti and Meatballs for All
How Much Is a Million? 20th Anniversary Edition
LULU'S LEMONADE
A Remainder of One
Reflections
How Big Is a Foot?
The Lemonade War (this one is a chapter book)

I have not looked at some of these books in quite a long while. I recently purchased the book Pattern Fish.

We loved Zero by Kathryn Otoshi and her other book titled One.

I will never forget reading "A Gebra Named Al" in school. Any book that can actually make Algebra seem like fun is simply amazing in my opinion lol. A Gebra Named Al: A Novel

Recently I have faced a great difficulty in teaching my daughter Michelle math concept. She is very confused about "more than" and "fewer than". I have tried drawing pictures, using Lego blocks, etc, but all did not work well. I searched in Internet and found this DK series - Making Math Easy. I wonder this series works or not? Anybody here had experience in using this book, do please share your views ...

I am unfamiliar with these DK books...but my kids used hungry alligators to learn greater than/lesser than....the alligator's mouth was hungry and wanted more so it opened its mouth toward the bigger number....good luck! :)