Published by Feiwel and Friends
Summary: From the creator of the Bedtime Math books and website comes this collection of questions submitted by real kids and answered using math. The answer to the question in the title is found using the dimensions of a guinea pig, calculating how many could fit in one cubic foot, then showing how many cubic feet are in a 747 jet. And that would be 472,500 guinea pigs. The cute and eye-catching illustrations of guinea pigs show their measurements in all directions. There’s even an interesting non-math fact thrown in (guinea pigs prefer company so much that in Switzerland it’s illegal to own a single pig). Questions are divided into five chapters: Animal Math, Nature Gone Wild (“Which wind blows faster, a tornado or a hurricane?”), Math for Your Mouth (“How much food do we eat every day?”), Your Life in Numbers (“When will I be a billion seconds old?”), and Earth and Friends (“How many soccer balls will fit inside a hollow Earth?”). The final section, “Now Do It In Your Head!” shows some tricks for quick mental math calculations. 144 pages; grades 2-6.
Pros: Kids will be drawn into this book by the questions, and even those who claim to dislike math will follow along with the calculations to see how to find the final answer. Check out the website (www.bedtimemath.org) for more mathematical fun.
Cons: I wish there were more awesome kids’ math books like this being published.
I have that same book on hold now at our library. I thought my newly minted 11yo would enjoy the idea. Your review confirms my ‘let’s order this based on the cover/title’ idea.
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